I have been having a LinkedIn account for a while without a profile picture. I really put getting a professional headshot aside and this was the perfect opportunity for me to get one. I didnt want to be one of those people with a prom photo or a photo from there iPhone as my profile picture so im glad I waited. Besides the wait, I really think this was an awesome activity that everyone took advantage of. The photographer knew what she was doing and cleaned up my pictures very nicely. I hope that this can be an activity that can happen again so it can benefit future Rose Scholars.

Up until this event I didn’t have a professional headshot. This was a big problem for me especially being a business major. The nice lady who took all of our headshots was very professional and did a great job in editing my picture. She also has a really good turn around rate as far as getting them back to us. I am now using my headshot on my LinkedIn. Beyond just what we did, I thought the headshots event was a great opportunity to meet other Rose scholars. It can be unnerving having you picture taken in front of that many other people, but everyone was really nice and supportive.

I’ve always dreaded formal photos — I always come out looking unprofessional or just not looking the way I want to. Nonetheless, I decided to give these headshots a try. To my pleasant surprise, I found that for once, I looked natural and also not unprofessional (I still wouldn’t quite call myself “professional”, but this is the closest I’ve ever gotten). I also realized that I have the exact same smile in every photo, which creeps me out a little.

This year, I took professional headshots again after I attended the same event last year. I thought that this year’s event was much more formal than last year’s, as we had an actual background instead of the wall. I also thought it was nice that we had an actual photographer this time taking our picture. I thought that this year’s pictures were nice, so I might use it in the future.

I am quite thankful for this Rose Scholars opportunity, as I had not yet taken any over my first two years at Cornell. The photographer was very patient and was thoughtful to take many photos, even though I did not have a pose or type of photo in mind. They all of which turned out fantastic! Finally, I had a head shot that I could attach to my resume and job applications.

I was thrilled when I heard that there was going to be a headshot event for Rose Scholars! I had not had my picture professionally taken since my senior portrait, and let’s be honest, I would not want to send a picture of myself from two years ago into a prospective employer. It was time for an update, and Rose Scholars provided the perfect opportunity. There was just one problem: I hate every picture of myself that is taken. I can always find something wrong with my face, whether it is a hair out of place or my eyebrows being uneven, I always hate the way I look. Luckily for me, the photographer was so kind and let me take as many pictures as I wanted. As it turns out, the pictures that she took photos turned out great, and I actually liked how I look! Thanks to Rose Scholars, I now have a headshot to send in for internships and shadowing experiences this summer!

At the rose scholars headshots event I got professional portraits taken to be used for career related events. Overall, I thought it was a great event and I am very glad that I participated in it as the headshots will be very useful. I plan to use the headshots for things like my linked in profile, career fairs, other social media profiles, and job interviews. I liked how we were given advice on how to position ourselves to get the best angle in the picture, and how she let us take multiple pictures so we would have a variety of different poses to choose. I hope there will be a similar event like this next semester so I can update how I look.

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.

As recruiting season for internships and summer experiences rolls around, students are making the final touches on their resumes, applications, LinkedIn profiles and more. One of the most important steps in this process is having a professional photo. As one of the first images that others see when they stumble upon your LinkedIn, a picture is worth a thousand words. A professional headshot can convey a lot about you: your personal brand, your professionalism, your personality and so much more. It allows a person to learn a little bit about you before you may actually meet in person and can leave a strong first impression. The importance of a professional headshot cannot be underestimated! 

I am very thankful that Rose House offered this opportunity. I loved the way that the pictures turned out and am very eager to use them for job and internship searches this semester!

Hiring a professional service to shoot headshots can be quite pricy, so I was excited to see that Rose House was offering this service for free. As we move into the professional part of our lives where we need to present ourselves as educated and put-together on social media and in real-life situations such as an interview, having quality headshots is important. Studies have shown that people make split-second decisions based on someone’s appearance, so having a good headshot could be the difference between being offered an interview or being passed up. Many students can’t afford to hire an expensive photographer for headshots, which means they may not seem as “professional” as someone who could, even though that might not be the case and the disparity is not their fault.

It was also nice that one of the students in charge of the mini-seminar was pre-med and able to answer a lot of my questions and other students’ career-related questions in general.

I recently had opportunity to have a professional headshot taken in the Rose Seminar Room, where I was also able to speak with an SA and other fellow Rose Scholars concerning career paths after Cornell. As a junior, the time when I need to decide what to do after Cornell, if only for the short term, is rapidly approaching. I found the event was an excellent wake-up call to the fact that, even though I have an idea of what I want to do already, and even a plan to achieve it, I still owe it to myself and my parents to fully explore every option available, since the optimal path (if there is such a thing) may be something I haven’t even heard of yet.

On Thursday evening, I dressed up in my only formal outfit, put on makeup, and headed out to the conference room in Rose Main to get my headshots taken. It’s been a few years since Picture Day in high school, but I assumed this event would go the same way: show up, get in line, take a single picture, and then leave. 

Instead, the photographer assured us that we would have control over our individual sessions. We could take as many or as few photos as we liked (time permitting), and we were to let her know if we’d like anything specific edited when she goes over the photos later. A few students had specific requests for the photographer, but most followed her lead completely and came away with three or four professional-grade headshots. 

The event gave students an opportunity to chat about their professional aspirations. We were all gathered in the same place wearing formal tops and, oftentimes, non-formal shorts (it was hot that day.) The aspect of the event that was the most fun to me was talking to the others in line; there were no specific time constraints, so people queued up for photos were forming groups and having conversations. One that I overhead was about ideal towns to work in, while I chatted with an upperclassman about his math major, and where he plans to take it after Cornell. Overall the event was useful, but it also gave me a new way to perceive myself as a pre-professional student.

Up until the start of this school year, I had not given any serious thought to possible future careers and life after undergrad. My email inbox is always filled with career related events/activities, which can get quite overwhelming. It is easy to delete these emails without even reading them. I find it so hard to picture myself in a career and living a completely new lifestyle. Just a couple years ago, I was still in high school! The photo session, however, has helped me realize that I could very well be in a full time job in a handful of years. Unlike my study habits, I do not want to procrastinate the pre-career process. This session has motivated me to dedicate more time for career development activities. I plan on finally creating a LinkedIn account and updating my Handshake profile information. Putting a little time aside each week for career related things will make the entire process so much more enjoyable and get rid of unnecessary stress. Most importantly, I am not going to delete every career related email I receive.  

This past week I participated in the professional headshot event, and was excited to finally get an official picture I could potentially use in the future. Particularly, I definitely learned from this experience that it is crucial to present oneself in the best light possible when career searching, and headshots certainly contribute to that appearance. As such, I think the greatest benefit I derived from this event was the correct method of creating a professional resume, as a headshot contributes largely to that appearance. Additionally, it is typically difficult and costly to get a headshot done, so I am extremely grateful for this opportunity to do so. I also had been coming directly from an interview in business casual attire, so it worked out well! In fact, I also was glad to learn about professional wear by observing the clothes everyone wore to the headshot event. Overall, I definitely gained a lot of knowledge from this experience!

“A picture is worth a thousand words…”

The headshot session on Thursday night is a perfect example. As we lined up to get our headshots taken, everyone made sure they were dressed their very best. After all, our headshot were to be used for our LinkedIn profile! Before attending, I had never thought much about the significance of a headshot. I learned however, that adding a picture to your profile makes you seem much more personable. Recruiters and employers alike prefer the addition of a picture – it adds an extra dimension to your past experiences, awards, and education. Pictures are increasingly prevalent in the digital age and the role they play in our everyday lives has grown significantly. We now use pictures to communicate, sometimes even in place of words. It made me stop and realize that a simple picture can convey a strong message, and as the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”.

The headshot and resume review seminar was a game changer! In the past, I have had a lot of difficulty in getting interviews and callbacks about job applications. Over the summer, I applied for five jobs, all in slightly different, but similar enough sections to fit my skill set. I got an interview for two of the jobs, but I went 0/5 in actually landing a job opportunity. One of the jobs I applied for with a friend had an extremely high employment rate. One of the most embarrassing things to experience in the job application process is to have to admit you didn’t get the job when all of your other friends did. After all of that rejection, I laid the groundwork myself for the majority of my resume changes. At the event, I met with Sara and she advised me to make the activity descriptions more verb oriented rather than summary oriented. This helped me hone my resume and make it more presentable to potential employers in the future. Along with all of that change, the photos and Sarah’s advice on how to fix my resume statements hopefully will get me higher employment to application ratio.

I hope my updated resume and the new headshots will improve my ability to get jobs by uploading them to my Linkedin profile, thus making it more attractive to firms and companies. With the vast opportunities hard work and a Cornell education could facilitate, I would hate a poor self-representation to be the reason that it all goes to waste. With my grandiose dreams of one day stepping into the political spotlight and leaving a lasting impact on the community, presentation is king. Some common adage that I have always subscribed to is that the way an applicant is portrayed to the employer can be his best friend or his worst enemy. Thank you once again for the ability to take the first step in getting my dream job by helping me present for it.

Why do people take different pictures for different purposes? And what exactly do people want to convey with images?

According to Francis’ book The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, portrait photography is a photograph that “captures the personality of the subject using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses.” (Francis 2007) But human’s personality is often too complex to be captured within a single picture: a lot of pictures just aim to capture what’s happening in an instant to convey something to the audience. Photographers might choose to just emphasize a specific aspect with a picture through the use of appropriate background and image composition. This Thursday, I got the opportunity to have a professional headshot taken at our mini-seminar and witnessed how professionalism can be conveyed.

Many elements are in play to make a portrait professional. First off, the use of a plain dark background. This background makes the subject stand out and gives the image a professional look. Secondly, the attire. Wearing a button-down shirt, or even better, a suit, enables the subject to impress the audience. Third, the camera distance and image composition. The headshot should only include the upper body and focus on the face of the subject. Last but not least, posture. The subject might choose to sit facing the camera or slightly sideways, but either way, the goal is to look elegant and pleasing to the eyes.

Pictures will never be the same as you. However, good pictures achieve their intended appeal to the target audience while giving an honest depiction of the subject.

Source:

Francis, Kathleen (2007). The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography. Focal Press. p. 341.

Cornell offers many different resources for professional help which I truly appreciate. Today I was fortunate to have attended a photography event in which I got my own headshot. Although I have a LinkedIn profile, I really needed a real, professional headshot instead of simply a high school photo. I just really want to thank Flora Rose house for having this event and helping me along with my career path. I’m very happy with how to the photos came out and it was great to see how many people got their headshots tonight. I wish everyone good luck in their future professional endeavors!

I believe that it is a fact of life that having a good headshot comes in handy. Humans are notoriously good at facial recognition, so seeing someone’s face is a lot more memorable than just hearing a name. Still, they’re not necessarily the first thing someone considers when thinking about professional life. For a long time, I thought headshots were only for Broadway performers or aspiring movie stars. But even when I realized that I should really have one for my still-unfinished LinkedIn account, I had no idea where I was supposed to get one.

Good headshots are hard to come by, as they’re hardly a DIY endeavor. I’ve yet to see a professional headshot selfie, and even if I could rope a friend into taking a semi-professional photo, the background would have to be whatever bit of uncovered dorm-room wall we could find. On top of that, I am somewhat tragically unphotogenic. I have the tendency to look like I don’t have a soul whenever I smile for a camera. The various school, government, and friend mandated pictures of me are all embarrassing to various degrees.

Fortunately, the headshots taken this evening by Patricia Wall were not like the other school, government, and friend mandated pictures. Namely, she didn’t just take one picture and let me deal with the facial contortion I chose for the picture later. Instead, she gave everyone tips on how to sit, took a few pictures each, and let us look at them afterwards so we could decide if we liked them. For that, I’m extremely grateful. Furthermore, I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to get a professional photo taken of me. It’s a small detail, but an important one, and something I would have had a hard time getting on my own.

I’m looking forward to finally having a good picture of me.

Tonight, as I went to go take my professional headshot, I was able to speak to some of my peers about their career paths. We were able to share our experiences and even offer each other advice. I expected the event to be one in which you just walked in, took a picture, and left; however, it was more than that. I spoke to a peer who explained that she was pre-med and interested in engineering, she planned to pursue an MD-PhD. It was great to hear about her aspirations, and even get some advice from her. In terms of the headshot, I realized that the lights and slated, an upright position enhanced my picture. This event was a great opportunity for me to start building up my career profiles.

The professional photoshoot session was really cool. I had no prior experience taking a professional shot, and it was awesome to see how everyone dressed up neatly in suits. It was awesome to have an experienced phototaker too.

This photoshoot made me understand the importance of dressing up in a presentable manner and keeping a neat and tidy appearance. Although we’re do not judge a book by its cover, after looking at the photos of myself, I must say that a profile picture gives a strong first impression. I hope that more opportunities like this appear soon. Also, I look forward to receiving my images!

Hello all!

This week, I chose to attend the Professional Headshot session. It inspired me to think of applying to new positions on and off-campus this semester as well as start planning ahead for my career goals. Applying for challenging jobs and positions may seem frightening at first; however, this seminar provided me with my first step. I hope everyone else found it as useful as I did. Thank you, and I look forward to receiving my shots ! 🙂