Giving and Getting Linked In Recommendations

recommendation pad

It is always a good idea to keep your resume up to date even if you are not currently looking for a new job.  You never know when the tides of fortune will turn, and you are suddenly thrust into a situation where you are laid off from your current position or, on the upside, receive an unsolicited offer.  In both cases, you want to have an up-to-date resume ready to go.

 

With Linked In being so prominent, you also want to make sure your Linked In profile is updated.  As opposed to someone asking you for a resume, you never know when someone will stumble upon your Linked In profile.  The information provided there may lead to an opportunity that may otherwise be missed if your profile was outdated, blank, or even non-existent.

 

Linked In, as most social media platforms, offers opportunities for people to recommend each other, and it also gives people an opportunity to share with anyone who is interested their positive experience of working with you.

 

Linked In Recommendations are an area that needs to be paid attention to and cultivated.  There are three ways to receive recommendations on Linked In.  One is to just wait for them to happen organically.  This is not recommended, as they may just not come.  Another way to build up your recommendations is to write a few for others, and hope they respond in kind.  Another way is to make a direct request of people to give you a recommendation.

 

Giving recommendations is the best way to ultimately receive them yourself.  Keep your recommendation honest, only recommend people who feel comfortable recommending.   If you write recommendation for everyone you know, they become less valuable.  When you decide to write a recommendation, make sure they are worded with authority, even if the person you are recommending is a supervisor, or is much higher in the organization.  What you write says as much about you as it does about the person you are writing about.

 

When you reach out to people for recommendations, be honest with yourself.  Reach out to people you worked with that you had good experiences with and ask for a recommendation without being pushy about it.  Ask they provide a recommendation if they have the time to do so, or if they are comfortable in doing so.  Realize that when you ask for a recommendation there may be reasons why they cannot or are unwilling to do so.  It could be against company policy or it could be against the rules and ethics of their field to do so.  Their recollection of your interaction might be different from theirs, and they just do not feel they willing to recommend you.

 

If you send a request, and they do not respond, do not push the issue.  They might have made their decision already.  Pressing your request can lead to an uncomfortable situation, especially if you are still working in the company.

 

A resume is still the most important item you have to represent who you are in your job search, however, with todays technology and social media platforms, a successful job search requires more than a resume.