How to Get Better LinkedIn Recommendations

June 7, 2018

Maximizing your LinkedIn account can really help your career. But how should you go about improving the recommendation section of your profile?

More and more job seekers are utilizing LinkedIn during the search process. And recruiters use it too. In fact, 87 percent of recruiters say they use LinkedIn to help them find the best candidates. There are so many things you can do to improve your LinkedIn profile. But it’s a little trickier where the recommendation section is concerned. After all, you can’t fill it out yourself. So, how do you go about getting better LinkedIn recommendations? Here are a few tips:

1. Establish clear goals

First of all, you’re going to want to do a little thinking about what you’re looking for when it comes to the recommendations, skills and endorsements section of your profile. Where are you heading in your career? First you want to get clear about the direction you’re pointing toward. This will make it much easier to understand which aspects of your professional experience you should work to emphasize in your profile.

More and more job seekers are utilizing LinkedIn during the search process. And recruiters use it too. In fact, 87 percent of recruiters say they use LinkedIn to help them find the best candidates.

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2. Know why it’s important

It’s essential to fully understand and appreciate an objective before trying to work toward it. Understanding the importance of improving the recommendations section of your profile will help you get to work on the goal. Think about it this way: the last time you shopped for something online that had a recommendation/review section, did you read it? You probably did. And what you read probably made an impact too. The same thing is true when a hiring manager is checking you out online.

Your LinkedIn profile shows potential employers who you really are, not just who you claim to be on your resume. There has to be congruence between the two. Have you been repeatedly endorsed for the skills you claim to have? Recruiters might just check on that. Do your recommendations support how you hope to represent yourself as a professional? It’s important that they do.

3. Give to get

One polite and easy way to go about getting LinkedIn recommendations is to give them to others. If you write a glowing paragraph about a coworker or a client, they just might do the same in return. Be sure to be honest, fair and truthful, and also write clearly and carefully, avoiding any and all grammatical errors. You may also want to send a little email along after you pen the recommendations letting them know that you’d appreciate them writing one for you, if they are so inclined. You’re not applying any pressure here. A brief and friendly email, or message through LinkedIn itself, should do the trick.

4. Make requests

Asking folks to endorse you on LinkedIn and write you a recommendation should be an ongoing process. Every time you have a significantly positive experience with another professional, you should consider making a request. You might want to start by writing a recommendation yourself. But you can also just come right out and ask them to write a testimonial for you. You may even include a few notes on specific accomplishments in your request. This will make it easier for them to write something up, and it will also help you get the specific recommendations and endorsements you’re looking for.

5. Don’t forget to say thank you

Once you’ve been given a great recommendation, or even just a few skill endorsements, it doesn’t hurt to take a few minutes to thank the person who helped you to improve your profile. In this day and age, old-fashioned thank you cards may seem a little outdated, but they’re not. A kind and sincere email also goes a long way too. Taking the time to thank someone for helping you encourages them to keep it up. You just might find that they up the ante on their recommendation or add a few more skill endorsements after hearing from you.