Master Career Counselor

Carla Hunter, President of Career Span, Inc. is a Master Career Counselor (MCC) by the National Career Development Association and a Certified Career Coach by the National Board for Certified Counselors. She is an expert in writing resumes, effective job search strategies and interviewing success. Most recently, with over 20 years of navigating the complexity of today's world of work, she published "Finding Your Place in the World of Work", a career interest inventory (2014) and CareerView, an iPad app. As a private practice career counselor and a workforce development consultant, this blog is Carla's trove of ideas, trends, forecasts, and career tips for finding meaningful work.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Job Hunting: Do You Need a QR Code?

Here is a guest post from my colleagues at DegreeJungle.com
Enjoy!


In October 2012, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the US unemployment rate stood at 7.9 percent. Admittedly this is one of the lowest figures reported since 2009, yet it still amounts to a staggering 12.3 million unemployed persons.

There is little wonder that competition for available jobs is fierce and job seekers are increasingly looking for ways to stand out from the crowd. The importance of social media in a comprehensive job hunting strategy is well documented. The Jobvite Social Recruiting Strategy reports that 92% of companies use or have plans to use social platforms for recruitment purposes, with 73% of companies having already made a successful hire.

In turn, these statistics have educated job hunters into the importance of well thought out social profiles that are full of character as opposed to being unnaturally squeaky clean. The Jobvite Social Job Seeker Survey reports that 88% of job seekers have at least one social networking profile, while one in six respondents credited social media with their current job. With so many job seekers jumping on the social networking bandwagon, could it be time to find a new way to stand out from the crowd?

One of the latest ways to appear different to the hundreds, if not thousands, of competing applicants that are standing in between the job seeker and the chance of a regular monthly paycheck is the use of a QR (Quick Response) Code. But wait, aren’t they something to do with couponing? Not any more. QR codes are increasingly commonplace on everything from fast food placements to movie posters. Users scan the code with their smartphone or tablet to be directed to (hopefully useful and mobile friendly) content.

Savvy job seekers are looking at how they can use a QR code on their resume or business card as part of their job hunting strategy, and some, like Victor Petit, are doing it in a very creative manner. There’s no denying the appeal of the QR code to help an applicant differentiate themselves from other applicants, but does that mean that every job seeker should have one? That largely depends on the sort of company a job seeker is hoping to work for.

Progressive employers such as advertising agencies, marketing firms, and software technology companies are likely to find the use of QR codes attractive. To see that a candidate has enough understanding of the technology to be able to implement it in their job search will be an attractive quality to many employers. It’s a given that a resume and covering letter should be tailored as far as possible to each job application, so one way a job seeker can gauge whether or not to include their QR code in a particular application is to see if the company they are applying to uses the technology themselves. If they do, it’s fairly likely that the job seekers personal QR code will be well received.

Sold on the idea of a personal QR code? The one question that remains is how job seekers can get their hands on one. Corey Eridon shows how to create a QR code over at HubSpot.

Author Bio

Linda Forshaw is a Business Information Systems graduate from Lancaster University in the UK. She is the main contributor to Degreejungle.com, as well as a full time writer and blogger specializing in education, social media, and entrepreneurship. Contact her on Twitter @seelindaplay


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