Just a reminder: LinkedIn offers a way to directly find a person’s profile by QR code IN THE APP. This feature remains one of the most undersold and under-used. It removes the awkward moments of trying to type in another person’s name and scrolling through a list of people, or watching someone do this (“Lee with to e’s instead of an i. No, I’m not that Jennifer Lee”). It also eliminates the extra work of adding people from snapshots of their conference badges, as you try to remember details like where they worked and what they looked like (because, of course, the picture is only shows of their badge and hand). The mobile QR code feature is so good that when I show it to people, I get responses like:
- “WHAT?! This is amazing! My life is changed by this.” – New VC connection at a networking happy hour
- “This is great! It makes this networking thing so much easier and I can keep track of who I talked to.” – Recently PhD grad looking for an industry role
- “I can’t believe I didn’t know about this.” – Many people, across career stages
- “This is an awesome new feature!” – Also many people
I never mention this in the moment, but the mobile QR code is not a new feature. LinkedIn posted a “How To” on it nearly a year ago and I think I’ve used it as far back as JPM Healthcare Week in January 2020 (you know, the pandemic before-times). I suspect its obscurity has to do with where LinkedIn hid it; it’s part of the app’s dynamic UI and isn’t where most people would expect an interactive button. I linked LinkedIn’s how-to above but if that doesn’t do it for you, feel free to check out the screenshots below on how to find it.
And to the developer(s)/team who implemented this feature – awesome job, I (and many others) love it.
So you’re looking for that mobile QR code thingy, eh?
1: Open the app and tap the search bar
2: Click the QR code icon to the right of the search bar
3: Voilà! You have your QR code
Natalie Jing Ma, PhD 