As recruiters we’ve seen our fair share of LinkedIn profiles (probably even yours). And it’s no secret that some choices of profile picture are wildly inappropriate looking like they’ve been taken straight from the ‘my picz xoxx’ album on Facebook.

LinkedIn plays a key role in everyone’s career now. Acting as your ‘digital first impression’ you should take every step to ensure your profile and picture conveys you both professionally and personally in good light. It’s not difficult to take a professional picture for LinkedIn. You can do it whilst in work with a camera phone. A head and shoulders shot is just fine. We’re sure one of your colleagues will be around to help.

When choosing the perfect picture, here’s our advice on what NOT to do.

Sunglasses

Unless you’re applying for new MTV series ‘Marketers in Malia’ we’d suggest you leave the shades out of it.

Holding a beverage

Showing you’re sociable is great, but no HR person wants to see you neck a stein on the worlds professional network.

Kids, Pets & Partners

We understand pictures with family, friends and beloved pets are to be cherished– we have plenty of them too, but you have Facebook for that!

On a Night Out

Both ‘lads lads lads’ and ‘girly nights out’ aren’t welcome when it comes to LinkedIn imagery. Take our advice when we say your future boss doesn’t want to see you boogying in your profile picture at 4am…

Inappropriate Attire

Unless you’re casting for Baywatch, we’d suggest you put the abs away and get yourself a professional image.

Nothing…

Like the egg avatar on Twitter, something is always better than nothing! Avoid looking like a spam account by making sure you have a profile picture (preferably avoiding all of the above). We recently had some of our pictures taken on the LinkedIn tour bus – keep your eyes peeled and they might be in your city to help one day!