Lately, I’ve been following some awesome chat groups on twitter like #HFChat, #CareerChat, #TChat and #JobHuntChat. In these one hour sessions, recruiters give job seekers tips, advice, ideas, suggestions, and issues on writing a resume, cold calls, and interview preparation.

During one of these chats there was a suggestion to include QR Codes in the resume. I thought it absolutely ridiculous to expect the majority of recruiters and applicants to even know what a QR code is and it’s relevance to your resume. But I might be wrong, it does have potential.

What’s a QR Code?

This is a Quick Response Code. Similar to a UPC code, the embedded information is accessible by the camera on your iPhone or Android via a QRCode reading app like Kaywa. The type of info can link to:

  • A web page URL
  • Text
  • Phone Number
  • an SMS message

I was a skeptic that a new technology like a QR code is going to be widely adopted by HR until I saw the above photo of a recruiting campaign by a new store. Very clever, very cool and as far as marketing goes – it is different and there becomes instantly engaging.

Why can HR adopt this new trend? Because it’s cheap and simple. Create a QR code for free at a site like this one. Then tie it to a specific job on your online recruiting portal, a web application form, a details page to the culture of your organization, a listing of available jobs, or anything and everything related to your recruiting campaign.

This is the kinda thing we are always watching at gowerk. How to make things easier, better, faster without breaking the bank and causing a ripple of adoption pain. QR codes seems to have struck a little treasure of opportunities with applicant tracking and onboarding.

You get it.

It’s pretty awesome.