The Perfect Picture: Professional Headshots

It's that time of the year again...the time of year when recent college graduates commence the search for the perfect post-grad job.  With it comes the endless flurry of applications, hours tweaking and editing to create the perfect resume, and of course, the professional headshot.

Photo Credits: M.P.

Not only do they get you more "reactions" than usual on Facebook, but professional headshots allow you to put out the best version of yourself in a competitive market.  Given, I am going to graduate school next and not a job, but I still believe in the importance of having a distinguished picture of myself for my personal and professional social media accounts.  When it comes to LinkedIn, having a headshot puts a face to the education, experience, and accolades that you present on your professional profile.  Putting a face to your resume allows potential hirers to [literally] see if you are a good fit for the job or company that you have applied for, which says a lot about how social media has come to play in terms of the modern job search.  That being said, here are some of my thoughts as to what makes the perfect professional headshot:

• Clean Appearance: I love my professional headshot for many reasons, one of them being that I like the way I did my makeup that morning.  I followed my typical makeup routine that adds dimension to my eyes and color to my cheeks in addition to plucking my eyebrows and brushing my teeth right beforehand.  I also followed my normal hair routine with respect to weather and wore an outfit that was comfortable and still nice looking.
• Subtle (but still present) Personality: to add some personality to my headshot, I wore my favorite pair of earrings and my graduation gown because in all honesty this was a graduation picture that I converted to a professional picture :) You cannot see them because I cut them off, but my roommates were by my side making the U with their hands so it looks like mine.  This gives it that subtle but still present look of school spirit.
• Basic Colors: I kept the colors in my picture natural and clean, with golds, browns, and pinks and the black and white of my graduation regalia to make it pop.
• Simple Background: this picture was taken on the balcony of the University of Miami Shalala Student Center, which has the best view of campus.  I got lucky that it happened to be a sunny day.  You can see the sky and some nature (palm trees, my favorite!) in the background, which makes it nice, simple and clean looking without detracting from my face.
• Taken By a Photographer: finally, what makes professional headshots stand out against regular pictures is when they are taken by a photographer, or someone who has a really good camera.  This allows them to truly capture the best of you in the best light possible with the best quality possible.  An iPhone just doesn't have the same quality that a camera does, which makes it stand out from your average everyday picture.  Shoutout to RK and MP for giving me professional headshots that I am happy to have alongside my professional portfolio!

And there you have it!  Just for kicks, my last little tidbit of advice is that it is important to keep your professional headshot current with how you look today.  I just recently updated mine from 2014 in order to present the newly graduated Hannah.  Below is what I used to look like on LinkedIn.

Photo Credits: R.K.