Job Hunting Season in Japan: The Photo

Another fiscal year is racing upon us.

In this season, as a freelancer with my own tiny business in Japan, I always think about updating my list of clients, finding more work, or even changing my employment situation all together. There are usually very few changes in the end and it only results in extra stress. I guess I like a challenge?

Above is one of the photos that resulted from attempting my own resume photo at home. A recent photo attached to resumes is not a tradition where I come from and to me is just another extra task any time documents are submitted.

For reference, the size requested is generally 3 x 4cm, a clear photo with no glasses or hat on, white or light background, and no shadows.

Most people in Japan probably use photo booths. For some reason, all of the photo booths in our area have a blue background. I'm not sure why, because all the requirements say resume and visa photos should have a light background. If we pay extra for data, we could change the background color with a photo editing tool, but why would that be necessary?

Anyway I feel like I always look awful in those photos so I wanted to try something different.

I went to a photo studio to get a photo, but learned that it would take a week for physical photos and including data the cost was over 5000 yen, for only two printed photos. They also wanted to give me the data file on a CD. Who has a CD drive these days? They aren't standard on computers anymore and I heard a lot of people don't even have a laptop at home.

There are a lot of free apps for taking resume photos yourself. 

I tried out a few with bad results. The one from Recruit made my face look disproportioned. I'm not sure why but am guessing it has something to do with my camera or type of phone.

I ended up using a simple app called ID Photo. It lets you choose the size photo you need and not only take a photo in app, but also use a photo on your phone.

The photo can be saved alone or you can choose the number of photos you want to print out and save a file with several pictures on it.

(I haven't tested out printing the photo.)

The next problem was lighting and background. As seen in the above image, there is a background shadow. I ended up taking a photo where there is a solid white window screen, and the daylight from behind that makes a nice background.

I'm still not happy with my photo... but I can only use it for three months and I'll need to take another one.

I think using a photo app is helpful for those living outside of Japan who want to apply for jobs that require a photo attached to their resume.