EVERYDAY JOB applications once listed a person's academic achievements, work experience and letters of recommendation, and any thought of including a photograph was strictly for those with modelling on their minds.
But photographs are becoming a regular part of job applications, involving not just any old family snap but rather modern art shots. Many female university graduates can be seen kitted out in miniskirts or wearing traditional Chinese makeup and low-cut Tang dynasty costumes, posing for snaps that will adorn their resumes in a trend that has been bolstered by fierce competition in the mainland job market.
But not everyone agrees with the practice, with some students and academics saying intelligence and academic results are still the deciding factor. Some mainland universities are going so far as to issue standard application forms in an effort to discourage students from including such photographs in their resumes.
Ren Zhanzhong, the director of Beijing University Graduate Employment Guidance Centre, says students are seizing on anything that might give them an advantage in the hunt for the right post. 'Art pictures in applications could indeed help in finding jobs, especially getting into the first round of interviews, according to our experience with employment companies,' says Ren. He says this is particularly the case with public relations-related jobs, such as aspiring journalists, secretaries or interpreters. Although men are also starting to try the trick on their applications, it is women who are leading the trend.
Ren's words are echoed by Shen Qiusha, a 20-year-old journalist major at Renmin University in Beijing. 'A relative of mine working in the human resources department of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank told me people submitting beautiful photographs of themselves stood a 50 per cent better chance of being selected for first round interviews in their company,' she says.
Although only a sophomore, Shen has already decided to spend at least 500 yuan on art photographs that she intends to include in her job applications in two years' time. 'Just as people like working with beautiful girls and handsome boys, employers like to interview applicants whose photographs give good impressions,' says Shen, who also works as a student journalist on her university newspaper, News Weekly.
