Recommendations is a basic feature of LinkedIn. You can write a recommendation for your colleague, mentor, student, or business partner, or you can ask for one. The number of recommendations that you've received and the recommendation texts are visible on your profile.
Even though you may already know how to write or request a recommendation, let us still have a quick look at how to do this, before learning some useful tips and tricks at the end of this chapter.
Let us learn how to receive a recommendation:
Let us learn how to write a recommendation:
Let us learn how to endorse our connections for their skills:
You've just learnt how to send and receive recommendations to and from your connections. However, it is important to learn how to identify the right people to approach for writing a recommendation and how many recommendations should be good to attract the target audience. The answer lies in the following section.
During the hiring process, most companies ask you to provide contact details of one or two colleagues or supervisors from your past employer. Recommendations on your profile reflect the authenticity of your work. So why not integrate this crucial aspect of hiring on your profile. On LinkedIn, there is no limit to the number of recommendations you can obtain.
The most important question is, "Is it the number of recommendations that matter or the position of the recommender?"
The number of recommendations on your profile definitely catches the eye of recruiters and potential business partners, but it will not assure results. Every recommendation that you receive should uncover a unique trait or characteristic of your work. It should be from a diverse set of colleagues, classmates, mentors, and business partners. It will not be a good idea to receive five recommendations from your friends in your class or a colleague at the same level. That would surely make it look dubious, even though it is 100 percent authentic.
Let's consider that I am a graduate from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. I have worked with two companies, KPMG and Ernst & Young, in a management consulting role. Assuming my tenure has been 1 year in the first company and 2 years in the second, I would aim to have the following recommendations on my profile:
The preceding list is just an estimate of how you should balance the recommendations on your LinkedIn profile. It may vary from person to person, depending upon your education, experience, and extracurricular work.
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