I signed up for the professional headshots mini-seminar. When I walked into the room, I thought about how much some people have at stake with this simple little picture. The other Rose Scholars were dressed super formally, their hair styled neatly, the curvature of their smiles thoughtfully calculated. The subtle cues in that little picture on LinkedIn could make all the difference for whether a recruiter reached out to you.

It’s unfortunate because all this prevents the job process from being objective. Pictures inevitably enable our unconscious biases to take hold of our decisions. You see a person’s race, how well tailored their suit is, and you make assumptions about their personality.

We can’t really do much to change the system when we’re unemployed though, so I strongly appreciate Photographer Patricia Wall helping us get these photos anyway. It must have been a painstaking process to edit all those photos. I suggested that she just use Snapchat filters, and we had a back and forth about which filter might work best, but she ultimately decided not to go this route. I also asked if we could change the background, which was a solid gray color, to a jungle setting. I thought this would make my headshot a lot more dynamic and exciting, which could be appreciated in the tech industry.

My headshot also taught me that I’m lifting my chin too high, apparently all the time.