To put photos/images in CV

[oneintheeye]

would it be acceptable to include pictures or 3-D images etc from projects in my CV in order to give a clear indiction of the project I have worked on and help differentiate myself from other CV's?

 

[MikeHalloran]

Inclusion of color images of stuff I've done has improved the response rate for my resume.

I had to crop aggressively and use very low resolution to keep the word doc size under common resume mangler limits.




Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[Ron]

Pick up a pdf conversion program..it will reduce the size of MS Word documents and make them more "portable". Nothing wrong with images in resume..after all, HR people can probably relate more to pictures than text...after all, they're all children anyway!!

 

[corus]

It sounds like a good idea, but if you keep to the mantra of having a cv of no more than 2 pages, then any images wil reduce the space left to describe yourself. Thumbnail pictures might avoid that but then you would lose any detail necessary to illustrate your work. A catch 22 situation.

Tata

 

[asixth]

I am a junior and only recently started a thread about key requirements for a structural engineers resume. I don't see the necessity for renders in a resume. They look nice but don't display what your role was. For example, see the attached image which I have just taken randomly from the net. The image looks nice and can immediately tell the reader that the project was valued at several million $US. But what does it say about the person.

1. Were they responsible for creating and co-ordinating the BIM model or were they responsible for supervising the staff who created the model?
2. Were the involved with the concept and schematic design during design development days with the architect and/or contractor if the contractor was involved during the early stages?
3. What elements was the person responsible for designing and detailing. Floor slab, lateral force resisting system?
4. Did the person perform site inspections, converse with builders and/or review shop drawings?
5. What management was the person responsible for?

If the reader is impressed with the renders then it will create some topics to discuss during the interview.

Another issue that my be arise from including renders is copyright and using images for yourself that are legally the property of the principles of the company and should not be used without permission.

If you do put images in your resume, please inform this forum on the success rate, because if it is a winning formula then I want to start including renders in my resume.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

I used to include my picture with my resume. Got a LOT better response.. IMO - any "visual" and what part you had in it - is better than none.

 

[TDAA]

I have done pictures for "Notable Projects". Some images I found on the net, and others I had taken during construction with my own camera.

 

[Ussuri]

I think including an image of yourself can work either for or against you. Human beings form opinions very quickly so the HR people screening your CV may form their opinion of you based on your image, not your experience.

Images can paint a thousand words but a picture of building alone doesn't really explain what your skills are.

That said, I'm sure HR types like pretty pictures so anything that gets you through the first cut and into a real engineers in-tray cant be a bad thing.

 

[TDAA]

I meant to add that I had descriptions of the project, my role, and what made them notable.

I did get good response from that, and some good things to talk about in the interview.

 

[oneintheeye]

well I'd include my role and what I did but my idea was that a picture tells a thousand words and will help my show the type of scheme I was involved in in less words. i.e. a building frame using blah blah blah or bam, a picture/3D model.

 

[KENAT]

Not so much a should or shouldn't as something to think about.

If applying via a website that uploads your resume, my guess is it'll probably strip out any pictures.

Even if just emailing or similar, places often explicitly ask for word resumes so PDFing it may not be an option.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[gwolf2]

Including pictures in your cv, particularly of yourself, became briefly popular in the 1990's when the software to do it became commonly available. It seems in Europe at least to have disappeared as quickly as it arrived.

A lot of CV's these days are scanned using various methods for keywords - pictures of any kind add nothing to this process. When I (rarely) see a CV photo it usually looks either really bad or really good, rarely in-between. If it's bad I wonder why they bothered, if it's really good I wonder if they are trying to distract me from their true ability.

I have never seen a project-related photo in a CV.