--- title: LinkedIn: What to Know Before Choosing a Photo for Your Profile description: Remember to smile canonical: https://time.com/3946858/linkedin-profile-photo/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-07T19:45:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:57:10.291Z og:title: What to Know Before Choosing a Photo for Your LinkedIn Profile og:description: Remember to smile og:url: https://time.com/3946858/linkedin-profile-photo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89cd33c7a60d17dc/698859f42dce0174a79e4837/linkedin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: The LinkedIn logo displayed on a phone. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What to Know Before Choosing a Photo for Your LinkedIn Profile twitter:description: Remember to smile twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89cd33c7a60d17dc/698859f42dce0174a79e4837/linkedin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What to Know Before Choosing a Photo for Your LinkedIn Profile > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Each week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published weekly. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=f7b939b4-6f1c-467a-b9a2-dcfbaf87d874&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1) by [Jessie Militare / MIMI](https://time.com/author/mimi/) ## Jessie Militare / MIMI Author Jul 7, 2015 7:45 PM UTC  The LinkedIn logo displayed on a phone. The LinkedIn logo displayed on a phone. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Jessie Militare / MIMI](https://time.com/author/mimi/) ## Jessie Militare / MIMI Author Jul 7, 2015 7:45 PM UTC [_MIMI_](https://www.mimichatter.com/) _is a Time Inc. property._ Choosing the right LinkedIn photo is no easy feat: you can’t just upload your latest selfie and expect to score your dream job. The snapshot should be professional, and show prospective employers that you’re the perfect person for a role without looking too staged or cheesy. Choosing an exemplary photo just got more involved: [new research suggests](http://www.businessinsider.com/linkedin-photo-to-seem-trustworthy-2015-6#ixzz3eN2d8i8K) looking at least a “little” happy in your picture will make you appear more trustworthy to prospective employers. So what does a “little” happy mean, as opposed to just, um, regular happy? Through a series of experiments, [researchers at New York University](http://psp.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/06/12/0146167215591495.full.pdf+html) found that people who weren’t overtly smiling or laughing like hyenas in their pic, but rather adopting a positive, upward-curving expression (upturned eyebrows included) seemed like more reliable candidates. And on the other end, if you sport a down-turned expression, or look more hardened in your photo, you are more likely to be perceived as untrustworthy. Basically, don’t look _too_ happy. Or deranged. I’m not sure why anyone would post a shot of themselves frowning, (no one likes an office grump!), but now you know. One experiment involved face perception, where participants looked at different computer-generated faces on a screen and were asked who they would choose to be their financial adviser and who they would consider to most likely win a weightlifting champion. Not surprisingly, the participants chose the happier-looking faces to handle their money, and the faces with wider, more serious expressions to lift the weights. Some bad news: you can’t really change how competent you appear in a photo, which is dependent on facial structure. That one seems unfair since LinkedIn is a very judge-a-book-by-its-cover space, but you gotta work with what you have. Considering all of this and the stressful process of finding a job, try these sound tips when choosing the [best photo](http://talent.linkedin.com/blog/index.php/2014/12/5-tips-for-picking-the-right-linkedin-profile-picture) for your profile: relax. Be yourself. _This_ [_article_](https://www.mimichatter.com/linked-in-photo-study-says-you-should-look-happy-in-photo-to-seem-more-1223437902.html) _originally appeared on_ [_MIMI_](http://www.mimichatter.com/)_._ _More from MIMI:_ * [This Is What Happened After I Tried an All Coffee Beauty Regime](https://www.mimichatter.com/coffee-beauty-products-beauty-regimen-review-1236567431.html) * [Meet the Cast of TLC’s New Show ‘My Giant Life’](https://www.mimichatter.com/my-giant-life-tlc-tall-women-cast-1236587400.html) * [Science Says a Vegan Diet Will Help You Lose the Most Weight](https://www.mimichatter.com/science-says-a-vegan-diet-will-help-you-lose-the-most-weight-1236166802.html) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3946858/linkedin-profile-photo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3946858/linkedin-profile-photo/"},"headline":"What to Know Before Choosing a Photo for Your LinkedIn Profile","datePublished":"2015-07-07T19:45:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:57:10.291Z","description":"Remember to smile","url":"https://time.com/3946858/linkedin-profile-photo/","keywords":["Living","Photo","LinkedIn","advice","career"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89cd33c7a60d17dc/698859f42dce0174a79e4837/linkedin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jessie Militare / MIMI"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89cd33c7a60d17dc/698859f42dce0174a79e4837/linkedin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The LinkedIn logo displayed on a phone.","caption":"The LinkedIn logo displayed on a phone.","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3946858/linkedin-profile-photo/","name":"What to Know Before Choosing a Photo for Your LinkedIn Profile"}}]}] ```