Graduate Turns Cap Into 'Hire Me' Billboard With QR Code

May 22, 2012— -- Like any other student on graduation day, Amanda Jonovski found herself stopping to pose in her cap and gown every couple of steps.

But the people taking snapshots weren't interested the new grad's face; they were interested in the scanable square code on top of her graduation cap that led to her online portfolio and bore the words "HIRE ME."

"It's been kind of fun to watch the profile views on the website," Jonovski., 22, said. "Close to 300 in two days."

Jonovski, a graphic design major at Notre Dame, decorated the cap with a QR code – the scanable square for smart phones found everywhere from subway ads to cereal boxes -- in her bedroom the night before the Sunday ceremony. On graduation day, two of her professors saw it and gave her thumbs up.

"I thought it was brilliant," Robert Sedlack, a Notre Dame graphic design professor, said. "It's not unusual for students to have 'Hire Me' or 'Need a Job' or 'Hi Mom' on the top of their graduation cap, but the QR code I have not seen before."

For Jonovski, who had only just started looking for a job after adding her second-semester senior projects to her portfolio, adding the code was a no-brainer.

"Hey, if someone sees it and happens to be a graphic designer, why not?" she said.

It turns out the site that hosts her portfolio, Behance.net, got wind of her cap when an audience member sent over a photo. The site featured Jonovski in a blog post that led to even more attention.

"I knew she had something up her sleeve," Sedlack said, adding that he doesn't think his student will have a hard time landing her first real-world job.

Jonovski is aiming to find work in Boston or Chicago and hopes to find a job that requires a mix of digital and print design duties. We would link her portfolio, but isn't it more fun to scan the code in the photo? We thought so, too.