The quality of the selfies you upload to Headshot Kiwi matters because the better your selfies, the better your AI-generated headshot. But what makes a Headshot Kiwi selfie good? And can you use your old photos?
Here's a short answer to the question:
It's okay to use old photos in Headshot Kiwi as long as they accurately reflect your current appearance. As a rule of thumb, we suggest that you never use selfies older than six months.
Now, let's take a closer look at why it's important to upload up-to-date selfies to Headshot Kiwi.
The Importance of Up-To-Date Headshots
You would never use a five-year-old photo on a dating app profile; so, why do it in your LinkedIn profile, CV, and job proposals? Having an up-to-date headshot that reflects who you are right now is more than just a whim… In fact, it can have a significant impact on recruiters.
For one, a recent headshot builds credibility through consistency. Just like you hate it when your Tinder date looks different in real life, so do recruiters find it suspicious if your headshot doesn't reflect the person they met during the job interview or video call.
Using an outdated headshot also signals to recruiters that you lack attention to detail. An up-to-date picture is a symbol of professionalism because it lets your future employer know that you took the time to review your CV and social media profiles and make the necessary changes.
Finally, recent headshots also allow you to stand out in a competitive job market. An old headshot will necessarily look more dated than a new one just based on image quality alone! The result? Recruiters will find it less appealing than the up-to-date headshots of other candidates.
Avoiding Accidental Aging
To achieve that desirable up-to-date look, using a recent headshot is often not enough. You should also try to eliminate all the elements in the photo that may accidentally make it look older.
It's like those old '80s photos from your family: Aunt Marie was decades younger, but her clothes and hairstyle were so dated that she looked way older… This is why professional headshots shouldn't use dated styles, lighting, and fashion elements. You should aim for evergreen to ensure that, a few years or months from now, your headshot will continue to look fresh.
This can be more important than you think, especially considering that recruiters (like all humans) can be subconsciously influenced by phenomena such as age bias. This causes them, for example, to favor younger people for some jobs and older people for others.
So, if you're applying for an internship at a hip fashion magazine, try to look young and stylish in your headshot; if you're trying to nail a senior position at a major company, go for a more formal and mature vibe that screams "I have the experience required to do the job".
4 Tips to Get Perfect Headshot Kiwi Selfies
So, your Headshot Kiwi selfies should reflect who you are right now and avoid falling into accidental aging traps that may discourage recruiters. But this is just a small part of what constitutes the perfect Headshot Kiwi selfie.
Here are four tips that can help you create the perfect Headshot Kiwi selfie bundle:
1. Avoid camera filters
If time alone distorts your natural appearance, what can be said of artificial filters like Snapchat filters? These tools may be fun to play with, but they should be completely excluded from your Headshot Kiwi selfies.
2. Use uncompressed files
Uploading highly compressed, low-resolution selfies is one of the most common mistakes of Headshot Kiwi users. This often happens because, without knowing, people reduce the quality of their selfies by using messaging or file transfer services that compress the files. Avoid apps like WhatsApp to send your selfies from device to device, opting instead for solutions that won't compress your original images (like Google Drive).
3. Aim for evergreen
Don't use selfies that contain elements that can be associated with a particular period in time, opting for evergreen alternatives instead. A nice white shirt? It will look recent today and 10 years from now! A trendy designer blouse? There's no way of knowing if it will still look new in a year.
4. Add variety through style, not time
What we mean is that, while your Headshot Kiwi selfies should be sufficiently diverse to create better results, this diversity should be achieved through style (like your face's position, indoor vs. outdoor lighting, etc.) and not time (meaning you're using photos from different periods).
Summary
At a moment in time when people renew their social media profile picture every six months (to be conservative), it doesn't make sense to use old selfies for your AI headshot. With high-quality cameras available in most of our devices, putting in the work doesn't take that much work…
To stay ahead of the competition and create an AI headshot that will impress recruiters, upload up-to-date pictures of yourself to Headshot Kiwi and watch out for accidental aging mistakes that can make your new photos look like they're from 10 years ago.
