Writing a recommendation on LinkedIn for a software developer can be an excellent way to endorse their skills and bolster their professional profile. However, it can be challenging to know what to include and how to effectively highlight their qualifications. This guide will provide tips and best practices for crafting a meaningful, well-written recommendation.
The Importance of LinkedIn Recommendations
LinkedIn recommendations provide third-party validation and social proof for someone’s skills and expertise. They can give extra credibility and serve as a form of reference for the software developer’s capabilities. When people are evaluating candidates to potentially hire or work with, recommendations can often influence their decisions and offer insight into what the developer is like to collaborate with.
For software developers specifically, LinkedIn recommendations can highlight both their hard and soft skills. This includes calling out technical expertise in coding languages, frameworks, systems, and tools as well as important capabilities like problem-solving, communication, leadership, and being a team player. Recommendations provide an opportunity to emphasize skills and qualifications that may not be as easily conveyed through a standard resume or portfolio alone.
Some key benefits of LinkedIn recommendations for software developers include:
- Reinforcing and validating key skills, accomplishments, and work experiences
- Providing social proof of capabilities from colleagues and managers
- Showcasing soft skills and personality traits
- Backing up claims about expertise with credible testimonials
- Offering valuable third-party endorsements for hiring managers and recruiters evaluating candidates
- Expanding visibility and presence in LinkedIn search results
So for developers who want to strengthen their professional brand and boost their reputation, getting thoughtful LinkedIn recommendations can make a big difference.
Who Should Write LinkedIn Recommendations
To ensure your LinkedIn recommendation carries weight, it should come from people who have directly worked with the software developer and can speak first-hand to their capabilities. Great people to request recommendations from include:
- Former or current managers
- Project managers or product owners they have collaborated with
- Team members, colleagues, and coworkers
- Employers, clients, or vendors they have done work for
- Mentors and coaches
- Former professors or instructors
Ideally, the people writing recommendations have had sufficient interactions with the developer to assess their skills, work quality, teamwork, communication abilities, and overall professionalism. The more context and details the recommendation writer can provide based on direct experience, the better.
It’s also good if the people recommending are connected to the developer on LinkedIn and/or share other connections, as this network effect helps establish their credibility as a reliable reference.
What to Include in a Recommendation
A recommendation for a software developer should provide specific examples and details that clearly illustrate their qualifications, work ethic, capabilities, and achievements. Here are some elements to consider including:
- Technical skills: Programming languages, frameworks, systems, tools they have expertise in
- Soft skills: Communication, leadership, initiative, problem-solving, teamwork
- Work habits: Time management, responsibility, ability to work independently, following through on deliverables
- Notable projects: Specific applications or programs they have worked on and their role
- Specific contributions: Significant accomplishments, innovations, and quantifiable impacts
- Cultural fit: Whether they were a good culture add to teams and aligned with company values
- Growth potential: Capacity to continuously improve and learn new skills
Along with listing capabilities, it’s important to provide examples and anecdotes demonstrating those qualities whenever possible. This helps paint a more complete picture and gives tangible evidence for claims about the developer’s abilities and work.
Here is an example of how specific accomplishments could be highlighted in a recommendation:
“John quickly mastered our company’s complex proprietary framework and used his expertise to lead the development of a new client-facing application from the ground up. He showed initiative by proposing ways to improve the codebase, and his optimizations resulted in a 35% increase in performance during load testing.”
Formatting Tips for LinkedIn Recommendations
Here are some formatting best practices to make your LinkedIn recommendation as strong as possible:
- Keep recommendations between 2-4 paragraphs in length
- Use concise, descriptive sentences focusing on facts and figures when possible
- Break up large blocks of text with bullet points or lists when appropriate
- Mention the person by name and use second-person language (“You excel at…”) to make it more personal
- Close with a summary of your endorsement and highlight excitement to continue working together
- Proofread carefully before submitting to check for any errors
Additionally, pay close attention to the wording used. Use action verbs like “developed”, “managed”, “led” when describing accomplishments. Avoid filler words like “very” and focus on concrete facts and measurable results. First-hand specifics are far more powerful than general platitudes.
Example Recommendation for a Software Developer
Here is an example of a strong recommendation that incorporates many of the best practices outlined above:
It has been a wonderful experience collaborating with Jane as a software engineer over the past three years. She has consistently demonstrated incredible skill, passion, and dedication to her work developing robust applications in JavaScript and Python.
Jane possesses exceptional technical abilities across a diverse range of languages and systems. She is highly proficient in JavaScript, HTML, CSS, React, Node.js, and MongoDB and leverages her expertise to build scalable web applications from the ground up. Jane stays up-to-date on the latest developments and best practices, and she integrated TypeScript into our stack which significantly reduced bugs. Her code is meticulously organized, commented, and incorporated into Git repositories with excellent documentation. She even built an internal site for our team to reference coding guidelines and API documentation.
Beyond her technical capabilities, Jane’s communication, teamwork, and leadership skills have enabled her to thrive. She breaks down complex concepts in a clear and simple way in discussions, documentation, and presentations to stakeholders. Jane actively listens and incorporates feedback from others. She served as a mentor for junior developers and helped them structure their code and develop good habits. And Jane can be counted on to go the extra mile, whether jumping in to help colleagues who are stuck debugging a tricky issue or staying late to fix critical bugs.
In summary, I cannot recommend Jane highly enough for any software engineering role. She embodies technical excellence, continual learning, and effective collaboration. I am confident Jane will continue to make strong contributions and emerge as a leader in any development team. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss her qualifications further.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
While writing LinkedIn recommendations, there are some pitfalls that should be avoided:
- Being too vague or general rather than including measurable accomplishments
- Simply repeating verbatim what is already on the person’s resume
- Providing a recommendation when you haven’t actually worked closely with the person
- Going overboard with effusive praise that sounds unrealistic
- Only focusing on technical skills without mentioning soft skills
- Writing a short, generic recommendation that could apply to anyone
The recommendation loses credibility if it does not seem based on real experience working together. And too much hyperbole can sometimes even have the opposite effect intended. The best recommendations strike a balance between compelling descriptions of key strengths and realistic endorsements of the developer’s positive impact.
Key Takeaways
Here are some key tips to keep in mind when writing a LinkedIn recommendation for a software developer:
- Choose recommenders who have worked closely with the developer
- Highlight both technical expertise and soft skills
- Include concrete examples and accomplishments
- Use measurable results and figures when possible
- Focus on skills and impact relevant to the intended audience
- Structure recommendation with well-formatted paragraphs
- Proofread carefully before submitting
An effective LinkedIn recommendation can do wonders for advancing a software developer’s career and reputation. By crafting a thoughtful, well-written recommendation highlighting their technical leadership, team collaboration, and problem-solving skills, you can powerfully endorse a developer’s capabilities to current and future colleagues and employers.