LinkedIn is one of the world’s best professional social networks for showcasing your skills, expertise, education, etc. to potential employers and recruiters. If you’re a recent graduate of a university🏫, we know it’s important for you to let the world know that you’ve completed your bachelor’s or master’s degrees and are ready to re-establish yourself in the workforce. Hence, this question often comes to your mind: Can I use my graduation picture on LinkedIn?
Use your graduation photos in your LinkedIn profile or not
Certainly, it’s very pleasant and full of pride for you who’ve waited for years to successfully complete the courses from a prestigious university🏫, to show off your success to your friends and family via your pictures at the graduation ceremony on social media such as Instagram, Facebook, etc.
It might be a great idea to replace your graduation photos on your LinkedIn profile. Mightn’t it?
Maybe you’ve seen some LinkedIn users who’ve put a photo of themselves in a graduation cap and dress as their LinkedIn profile picture.
When you capture that magical moment of graduation in a photo and now you want to use it on your LinkedIn page, according to some experts, it’s not a very wise thing to do, as well as doesn’t bring any special advantage to you.
Maybe that’s why employers and recruiters think you’re inexperienced and lack the necessary skills and qualifications for their job position as soon as they see this picture.
As mentioned on LinkedIn, believe it or not, many employers firmly believe that the vast majority of college🏫 graduates lack the main skills to land a variety of jobs.
Unfortunately, they don’t acquire job-related skills in their universities🏫, including face-to-face interpersonal relationships, work ethics, and so on.
You may be surprised that some individuals even without any university🏫 degree are known as the most successful entrepreneurs in their business and more interestingly, they learned all their professional skills and expertise in the market and not in the university🏫.
Be honest with yourself! If you’re an employer and recruiter, which persons would you rather hire as your employee: people who put their graduation picture on their LinkedIn profile or those who chose a standard and professional photo for their profile?
Which group seems more professional and qualified to get your target job position?
Why and how should we choose the right photo for our LinkedIn profile?
As we all know, in order to be successful on LinkedIn and improve the level of work and business relationships, the first step, and in fact, the most important step is that we have to create a professional and standard profile using the principles and rules of LinkedIn.
Bear in mind that your LinkedIn photo is always one of the most significant elements of your profile.
It’s better to know that when recruiters or employers view your LinkedIn picture for the first time, they may consider you as a top talent for the job they’re looking for if you add an appropriate and acceptable picture to your LinkedIn profile.
To begin with, we need to put a professional and appropriate photo on our LinkedIn profile.
As a rule of thumb, it’s recommended that you choose the right picture for your LinkedIn profile. This is because all company hiring managers check your profile carefully on LinkedIn.
So, we strongly advise you to opt for your profile picture according to the traditional profile picture standards on LinkedIn and use a professional headshot to receive more and better job recommendations, as well as avoid putting your family photos of events, celebrations, parties, etc.
What pictures shouldn’t we use for our profile photos?
According to LinkedIn, your profile picture can be removed by LinkedIn only if:
- You use a picture that doesn’t include your likeness or a headshot photo
- You use animal pictures for your profile photo
- You use the company logo for your profile photo
- You use landscapes pictures for your profile photo
- You use pictures related to text, words, or letters for your profile photo
- You use stock pictures and other images for your profile photo.
How can I change the graduation picture on my LinkedIn profile?
As mentioned earlier, adding a good profile photo will increase your profile credibility, because LinkedIn members will feel free to send you an invitation to connect or accept your invitation when they see your photo.
LinkedIn allows you to add, edit, change, and remove your profile picture from your profile page whenever you want.
It’s worth mentioning that you can even change the visibility of your profile picture and choose who can see your profile picture.
To delete or change your graduation picture on your LinkedIn profile, you need to follow these simple steps:
1. Click the Me icon at the top right of your LinkedIn homepage.
2. Click on the View Profile tab.
3. Click on your graduation picture at the top left of your profile page.
4. From the profile picture pop-up box, click the Delete button.
Note:
At this step, instead of deleting your graduation photo, you can add another photo to your profile. To do this, click the Add photo button.
From the add photo pop-up box, you can use your device’s camera to take a photo, or you can select a photo from your computer and then upload it.
5. To confirm the deletion of your graduation photo, click on the Delete button from the opened box.
How can I use my graduation picture on LinkedIn?
Although LinkedIn is not a good place to record your personal moments, you can publish your graduation pictures as a post on LinkedIn so that all your friends, connections, followers, and others will know about your graduation on this platform.
Conclusion
Your profile picture always plays a key role in building your credibility as a candidate. So, going back to the first question you may have after graduation: Can I use my graduation picture on LinkedIn? As a recruiter, we highly recommend you never utilize a degree photo in your LinkedIn profile.
Although you’re obviously eager to use it as a fresh graduate, it can’t say anything regarding your potential skills and expertise in the professional world of LinkedIn.
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