LinkedIn profile picture made from a selfie with AI

A file outside LinkedIn's specifications simply won't upload. What LinkedIn asks for, and what you get from Kandiq:

LinkedIn's profile photo guidelines accept an illustration, caricature or other artistic rendering of yourself, provided it reflects your likeness. LinkedIn may remove a photo that consists only of:

• a company logo, emojis, words or phrases;
• a landscape, an animal or a flag;
• a childhood or baby photo;
• someone else's likeness, including stock images, celebrities and fictional characters.

Nothing in the guidelines rules out AI. The test is resemblance: an AI headshot made from your own selfie is still a picture of you. If the result is so smoothed that you no longer look like yourself, pick another one, because the interviewer will notice on the first video call.

• Fill the frame: LinkedIn recommends your face takes up about 60% of the picture, from the top of your shoulders to just above your head.
• Be on your own: a cropped group or wedding photo always leaves a stray arm or shoulder.
• Keep it current: the person in the photo should be the one who turns up to the interview, with today's hair, glasses or beard.
• Look at the camera: a relaxed, natural smile reads as approachable.
• Use soft light: daylight from a window or a cloudy sky, rather than a flash or office strip lighting.
• Choose a plain background: a light wall or a softly blurred setting keeps the focus on your face.
• Dress as you would at work: solid colours photograph best.

The tool has four styles. Choose according to your sector and the role you're after:

• Neutral studio: plain light grey background, soft front lighting. The safe choice in any sector.
• Office: softly blurred office background. Friendly without being casual, which suits customer-facing roles, HR or the public sector.
• Formal: dark background, suit and tie. The usual choice in consulting, financial services and law.
• Outdoor: natural light and a blurred city background, a good fit for creative roles.

The headshot can only be as good as the photo you give it. LinkedIn points out that a phone's front camera gives a lower-quality image than the rear one, so ask someone to take the picture with the main camera if you can. Face a window rather than having it behind you, hold the phone at eye level, and keep your face clear of sunglasses, hats and hair. Take a few and choose the best.

Turn off beauty filters: the AI needs your real features. Use a JPEG, PNG or WebP file, as some browsers can't open the iPhone's HEIC format. The tool checks that the image is readable and clearly shows your face before it creates anything.

A professional photographer is still the best choice when your image really matters: a senior role, speaking at events, a firm's team page. They direct your pose, control the light and retouch with a light touch, but it means booking and paying for a session.

A phone photo taken by a friend is free, though the background and light usually give it away. An AI headshot sits between the two: you start from a photo taken at home and end up with a clean background and studio-style light, in the style you choose. When you change sector, you can make a new one without going back to a studio.

Kandiq doesn't post anything to LinkedIn on your behalf: you download the file and add it yourself. On a computer, as LinkedIn's help centre describes:

1. Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage, then View profile.
2. Click your current photo in the introduction section (or the Camera icon if you don't have one yet).
3. Click Add photo, then Upload photo, and choose the JPG.
4. Crop, adjust or apply a filter, and set who can see your photo.
5. Click Save photo.

In the app, tap your profile photo, tap it again to open your profile, then tap your photo or the Camera icon. The same menu lets you add a frame. If the upload fails, LinkedIn suggests trying a different browser or compressing the image.

In the UK, your photo belongs on LinkedIn, not on your CV. British CVs leave out the photo, date of birth, nationality and marital status: age, race, sex and marriage are among the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and employers prefer not to receive information they mustn't base a decision on. A photo in the header can also confuse applicant tracking systems.

Kandiq's ATS CV checker flags a photo on your CV. The headshot tool can place a portrait in a CV header for countries where that's the custom; for a UK application, leave it off and let recruiters find your face on LinkedIn. To make your headline and CV say the same thing, see our guide to the CV personal statement.

• No photo: a blank profile gets far fewer views and fewer accepted connection requests.
• A holiday snap: sunglasses, a beach or a pint in hand don't say "hire me".
• Heavy retouching: the recruiter will meet the real you.
• Wrong framing: too wide and your face vanishes in the thumbnail, too tight and the circle cuts it off.
• A small or blurry file below 400 x 400 pixels, which LinkedIn won't accept.
• An old photo: update it when your appearance changes.

Your face is personal data, so check what any AI headshot generator does with your photos before you use it. At Kandiq, your selfie is sent to our AI provider to create the headshot and isn't kept anywhere afterwards. Your headshots are saved in your browser until you delete them.