July 12, 2012

One more resume thing to think about: QR codes

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By Diane Stafford / The Kansas City Star
Just when you think you have your resume looking pretty good, James Alexander suggests a Botox injection.

Actually, he’s just using Botox as a metaphor for an infusion of youth.

How so?

The founder of Vizibility, an online “reputation management” company, suggests adding a quick-response code, or QR code, to your resume.

QR codes are those matrix barcodes that you see on advertisements and product labels. Scan the QR code with a smartphone — more than half the population now has one —and you’ll open up more product information.

You, Alexander says, are a product. You are selling yourself and competing against a lot of other techno-savvy people.

Alexander started his company after he Googled his name and 23,000 hits popped up — almost all of which weren’t about him. He then decided to create a “digital bridge to a richer set of information.”

You can check out the products — some of them free — that Vizibility offers online. Depending on just how much online “reputation management” you want, you can pay up to $99 a year to have an active account with his company.

And that includes embedding QR codes on resumes. The point is that a hirer or someone you’re trying to add to your network can click on it and learn more about you.

The important thing, Alexander says, is that your QR code doesn’t just give a picture of your business card or something equally static. It needs to create a “mobile experience” — video perhaps — that can help you tout yourself.

QR codes on resumes are still relatively new. But that’s partly why Alexander calls it Botox for job hunters, or any professional for that matter.

“Why sit on the sidelines when young users are embracing the technology?” he asks. “You want to appear with it. You want to make it easier to learn more about you quickly.”

That’s why online services such as Vizibility are popping up. Just like a museum director curates the art that’s chosen to hang on the walls, online services help users cut through the clutter and curate the images they present employers and business associates.

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Resumes and Job Hunt, featured, resumes, technology

1 Comments

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