Whether you’re trying to score a job, a role, a customer, or a date, you ABSOLUTELY NEED a headshot.

“A series of experiments by Princeton psychologists Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov reveal that all it takes is a tenth of a second to form an impression of a stranger from their face, and that longer exposures don’t significantly alter those impressions (although they might boost your confidence in your judgments). Their research is presented in their article “First Impressions,” in the July issue of  Psychological Science.” 

Your headshot is the swoosh to Nike, the stripes to Adidas, the apple to Apple. Your logo is both the literal and figurative image of you. Understand that your headshot is incredibly important, and could be a deal breaker that gets in the way of you and a really good job. It is a great boost for your career in all aspects. Whether it be you’re looking for a client or employee, a prospect or client, or even a relationship, a headshot is a representation of you. While there is no guarantee that it will score you a multitude, or even one, of these things, it doesn’t hurt— nor will it be fruitless.

The value that a truly professional headshot provides to a subject is that it exemplifies your professional stature. Being a professional is not about your education background, salary, or experience— it is about a certain mindset. Whether you are an actor or a real estate agent, a professional representation of who you are, especially in comparison to another candidate, can make or break any situation. Consider yourself your own business, which you are in a way. You have your own brand, yourself, to market. When you surf through Amazon to find a product you like, do you consider the product photographed in someone’s hand or the product that was clearly taken in a professional manner? Whether those products were actually photographed in a studio, they look like they were. They look professional, which says to you— the customer— that the product has quality, is trustworthy, and has value. This image represents, not only you, but your quality, trustworthiness, and value. This image, alongside other things, is what keeps your prospects from scrolling past you and moving onto the next.

“We judge books by their covers, and we can’t help but do it,”  researcher Nicholas Rule of the University of Toronto said in a statement. “With effort, we can overcome this to some extent, but we are continually tasked with needing to correct ourselves.” –  Huffington Post

In addition to that, there’s a lot less to go off of marketing yourself the old way. In a time that values social media networking, finding your way into a career without a headshot is significantly more difficult. If they don’t know who you are or what you look like, what separates you from the rest? You are a resume, or an audition, or just another person on a dating site. Get yourself a headshot that shows off your quality, your trustworthiness, and your value in a way that you want shown. In a world where people judge books by their covers, it’s your job to make your cover look good and— most importantly— make sure that you have what it takes to do the job right!

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