Pictures

I used to be loath to send a picture with my resume. Now if someone asks for it, it's easier to just send it than to fight them. I think in general it's a dumb concept. If you want to date like that then sign up for a dating site where you can have access to a potential match's multiple profile pictures. 

People say that it's in your best interest to send a good picture of yourself, because you never know what picture that person might see of you otherwise. It's easy to find a picture of someone nowadays, whether it's online, via your own social media accounts or a friend or family member's of yours private social media pages. Maybe they know someone who has your phone number and you have a WhatsApp profile picture or the like... Or perhaps your friend or relative thinks they're doing you a favor and forwards a pretty unflattering photo of you.

Many people pride themselves on their online privacy. If you google their names you'll perhaps come up with a bunch of references to their professional work, or their name in the Whitepages, or any of the other scams that promise you everyone's info for the low price of $10.99 for absolutely nothing, but they're pretty sure there are no pictures of them online. How many pictures of you are floating around on other people's phones though?

So, to be honest, when I get a resume of a guy with his picture, I usually say no. Not that looks matter, because they don't necessarily, it's about the person inside, but when you aren't introduced to the inside person at the same time as the two-dimensional, it's often hard to remember that. 

There's a certain amount of chein that people have that make them attractive that doesn't come across in a picture. I remember a few years back a shadchan asking me for a picture. I don't think that I'm super photogenic, but I shared one begrudgingly. She pestered me four or five times for a "better picture." "C'mon," she said, "You're so pretty, don't you have a better picture?" I wanted to respond, "If these pictures aren't good enough, I'll send you one more, and I'll even autograph it. The dude can marry the photo of me, because I sure am not going out with him if this is the big deal you say he's making about a picture." Since then I learned how to take better pictures I think. It's called sunlight and a chill with my brother and his professional camera. But really, why must we reduce people to their two-dimensional image?