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I have a personal site - myname.com. On this, I have links to my travel photography, boudoir photography, side projects, and interactive resume. I'm a software engineer. If you search for me in google, this pops up. I also link to the resume section (myname.com/resume) from my linkedin profile. (Note - I don't link to my photography, but that can be googled or they can just remove /resume to find it).

My fear is that - despite the style being "tasteful sexy" - some folks might see it as a bit offensive. It's basically a bunch of sexy women posing with lingerie.

For those of you in HR, leadership or hiring positions, would you see this as a red flag of some kind?

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closed as primarily opinion-based by Mister Positive♦, DarkCygnus, Masked Man, Chris E, IDrinkandIKnowThings Oct 9 '17 at 17:42

Many good questions generate some degree of opinion based on expert experience, but answers to this question will tend to be almost entirely based on opinions, rather than facts, references, or specific expertise. If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.

  • Well if you are seeking a job related to Art and photography then it is something you should definitely put. If you are seeking for other kinds of job, you could include that as a Hobby or other skills you have. Besides, photography is actually work experience if you think of it, but it depends on what job you seek so that you tailor your resume accordingly. – DarkCygnus Oct 9 '17 at 16:59
  • Yep, this is a bad idea 99.99% of the time. – Mister Positive♦ Oct 9 '17 at 17:09
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    @SB2055 - Why else would hiring managers be looking at your resume then – IDrinkandIKnowThings Oct 9 '17 at 17:32
  • @IDrinkandIKnowThings Apologies - I should have specified that I'm interested in learning from anyone who might see this in the workplace. Recruiters/HMs, managers, HR are what came to mind. – SB2055 Oct 9 '17 at 17:37
  • @SB2055 why would they see it? Unless you are being hired they really basically leave your resume in the file, if they kept it at all. – IDrinkandIKnowThings Oct 9 '17 at 17:39
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For those of you in HR, leadership or hiring positions, would you see this as a red flag of some kind?

I've been a hiring manager for a long time. While I wouldn't personally see this as a red flag, I know some hiring managers that would.

Your fear ("some folks might see it as a bit offensive") is real. Some might indeed find it a bit offensive.

Unless the jobs you are pursuing are in the photography field, I'd suggest you remove references to your site from your resume and the resume section of LinkedIn.

Why risk it when there is no benefit?

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    Why risk it when there is no benefit? - that is it right there. At no time is having that section going to be beneficial to finding a job. But there will be times it is a hindrance. – IDrinkandIKnowThings Oct 9 '17 at 17:04
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    The best bet is to put your photography on one domain and your professional, career related info on another. You can always list photography as an interest/hobby/sideline without showing them potentially NSFW images – DLS3141 Oct 9 '17 at 17:30
  • I have almost the same issue. Before I went to engineering school, I went to art school and had a brief career as a photographer and I still make photographs to this day. I have a website exclusively for my artwork and it is NOT linked to my professional resume. The only thing related to my artwork that is on there is my degree. It's always a topic of discussion, but I've rarely had anyone at work inquire about actually looking at my artwork. In any case, none of what I do is NSFW. – DLS3141 Oct 9 '17 at 17:44
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    Talk about risk... A high school teacher was fired for using his butt to paint art. The catch is... 1) Explicit efforts were done to isolate his art pseudonym. 2) He made no mention of it in class or to anyone at work. 3) some kid found him and started circulating it. I bet if you can get fired for this, you can be passed for a job. – Nelson Oct 10 '17 at 4:54
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You should not put this on your resume.

Unless the jobs you are looking for are directly related to the art/photography area, this kind of content is nearly always inappropriate for the workplace, and therefore inappropriate for your resume/CV.

As a hiring manager, in fact, the thing I would be concerned about simply seeing the link on your resume is what you specifically cop to in your question, which is that you then share these pictures with colleagues and managers while on the job. In today's workplace, that's just sexual harassment/unsafe workplace complaints waiting to happen, and "no one has complained yet" is the usual completely-ignored defense of the person who gets targeted by it, for good reason - people don't always feel comfortable confronting someone about behavior that they find concerning or offensive.

So take it off your resume, and get it out of your head that sharing stuff like that inside the workplace is at all appropriate - it'll save you a firing at some random point in the future.

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