Do you have a photo on your "Taiwan" resume?
yes
never have
used to, don’t now
0voters
Hi all,
I have a question that arose from Imaniou’s thread about job-hunting. She mentioned that she put a photo on her resume. Which she said she now does not do BTW.
I am curious now, because in New Zealand we never put a photo on a resume; I think the rational is that the prospective employer will not hire an otherwise qualified employee because of their looks. It could also connected with the sizeable Maori population too.
So, for some reason,it has never occured to me put a photo on my resume when job-seeking, which so far has included NZ, Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong in addition to Taiwan. Now I’m wondering what effects that may have had on the job-seeking…
Anyhow, I know the custom in Taiwan is to include photos, but what have various of the Forumosans done? Do you include photos here? Back home?
Why? Because most schools require it if you want to work for them. With probably the exception of Hess which while hire any schmuck who rolls down the tarmac at CKS Airport. They want to make sure you’re not too old, too scary-looking, or too dark-skinned. The previous two they obviously overlook in many cases. The third? A bit less negotiable.
In the teaching industry here in Taiwan, your photo is far more important to procuring a teaching job than anything they might read in the rest of your entire resume.
This is why photos on resumes are a no-no in the US, with the possible exception of the modeling profession, in which case it would be an attached portfolio of photos.
I refuse to put a photo on my resume, and I advise my student consultees not to include them when applying for admission to overseas MBA programs.
You are not supposed to put photos on a resume in Canada and the USA - I believe it is not even legal for a company to ask for one. They are trying to prevent discrimination.
In Taiwan they want a photo so they can more easily practice discrimination.
But whether or not to include one here? In a lot of cases you’ll be wasting your time if you don’t include a photo, because you’ll be rejected because of your age, looks or race at the interview anyway. On the other hand, in a very small percentage of the cases, you may get an interview and be able to charm or impress them out of their prejudices.
In sunny SA, some companies will not even accept a resume from a possible candidate, because it might include information such as gender, marital status, etc. If they are not appointed, the applicant may take the company to court or Department of Labour for discrimination against above reasons. The companies I worked for supplied their own forms that had to be filled in.
I came to Taiwan via an agent 4 years ago and they insisted on a picture on my resume. I must confess, I chose a picture where I was nice and slim and not too scary looking! O yes, and the agent also asked me to use a pic with no facial hair!!
Outside teaching, in the real world, attaching photos also seems to be the general practice. My wife is a recruitment consultant in Taipei, though, and and her advice is do NOT attach a photo when approaching a company; also, do NOT send an “autobiography” in which you describe the traditional values of honesty and kindness your parents instilled in you, usually couched in florid and unwieldy chengyu, and always accompanied by an English “translation” featuring the phrase “Just Do It”. She and her colleagues at the agency (they’re all Taiwanese people) enjoy a regular laugh over cornier examples of photos and autobiographies, at the expense of the hopeful candidates who sent them in.
I voted “never have” but then I realized that though I don’t put my photo on my resume, I do often send it with my resume as that is how many schools do their hiring. I sometimes print my resume on interesting paper that’s found in the book store, such as “marble” or “Doraemon”.
Hess required a photo on their application form until about a year ago when it was removed, partly because of concerns about hiring laws in the countries they recruit in, and partly because people kept attaching twenty megabyte bitmaps and crashing the servers
I’m not sure whether they ask for one later now or not.
i found it very strange that while applying for teaching positions with english teaching recruiters that they asked me to include a photo.
this would never happen here in america (as previously mentioned).
i believe this is a way to determine race, age, lifestyle, without having to directly ask for it.
i sent a photo of myself with a huge class of children so i was there in the background, blended in. and one of a close up that was a good photo of me, but still, you could walk past me and not know that was me.
i also found it strange that i was asked my age. this does not happen in countries with laws like the us that frown upon hiring based on age, race or looks.
[quote]Mr. Vayner’s curious celebrity came after an 11-page cover letter and résumé as well as an elaborate video that he had submitted to the Swiss bank giant UBS showed up on two blogs, and then quickly spread on the Internet. The clip, staged to look like a job interview, is spliced with shots of Mr. Vayner lifting weights and ballroom dancing and has him spouting Zen-like inspirational messages.
The video clip flooded e-mail inboxes across Wall Street and eventually appeared on the video-sharing site YouTube. . . [/quote] nytimes.com/2006/10/21/busin … ref=slogin
If I didn’t know better, I’d say that was his aim… to be an inspirational guru. He lifts weights and talks about achievement in an airy-fairy way. He’s the next…well, he’s the next. I bet he spent a lot of time in lockers waiting for the janitor to release him from his jock hell.
The person who let him know that resumes do not have to be limited to only two pages should be drawn and quartered.
however I always include a photo for the following reasons.
1- just as on dating sites, if I do not include a photo they will assume that I am leatherface or (horror of horrors) a negro!.
2- they will see me eventually anyway
3- I recently lost a writing-related job opportunity because I didn’t “look professional enough” or something. (though they were quite happy to send my goofy-looking ass down into the kindy dungeons) including a photo is a good way to remind myself that looks matter.
For a while, back in the 90s, it became all the rage for college applicants to send videos along with their applicaton materials. The first person to do it probably did so because it would make him stand out. Then everybody wanted to stand out, doing exactly the same thing (thereby not standing out)! Apparently the schools finally put a stop to it by saying they no longer accept videos.
