Having strong recommendations on your LinkedIn profile can be a great way to showcase your skills, experience, and connections. But who should take the time to write those recommendations for you? Let’s explore some of the key people who you may want to ask.
Former managers
One of the best sources for LinkedIn recommendations is a former manager or direct supervisor. They have firsthand experience working with you and managing your performance, so they can provide valuable insights into your strengths, achievements, and work ethic.
Some key things a former manager can highlight include:
- Your responsibilities and contributions to projects/team efforts
- How you interacted with colleagues and stakeholders
- Specific skills and accomplishments
- Your reliability, dedication, and attitude
The recommendation will carry more weight coming from someone who directly oversaw your work. Focus on managers you had a good relationship with and who can vouch for your abilities.
Colleagues
Co-workers that you collaborated with on projects and team efforts can also provide useful recommendations. They may have a different perspective on your skills, work style, and impact compared to a direct supervisor.
Colleagues can speak to things like:
- How you communicate and problem-solve
- Your teamwork abilities
- How you handled challenging situations
- Specific instances where you helped the team
Aim to get recommendations from peers who have directly worked with you over an extended period. Avoid asking brand new colleagues who don’t know you well yet.
Clients
For certain fields like consulting, marketing, sales, and more – having recommendations from key clients or customers you’ve worked closely with can be hugely valuable. Their perspective on your work can carry a lot of weight.
Client recommendations may cover topics such as:
- The value you delivered for their business
- How you handled the client relationship
- Your professionalism and dedication to their needs
- Specific ways you went above-and-beyond
Having recommendations from multiple clients demonstrates your ability to consistently deliver results and strengthen client relationships over time.
Vendors/partners
Developing strong working relationships with vendors, contractors, agencies, and other partners is an important skill. Getting recommendations from companies you’ve collaborated with shows you can cultivate trust and teamwork across organizations.
These connections may speak to your abilities in areas like:
- Communication and responsiveness
- Negotiation and conflict resolution
- Project management and strategy
- Your role in jointly accomplishing goals
Aim to get recommendations from vendors/partners who have worked with you extensively and can vouch for your partnership.
Mentors
Mentors can be great sources for LinkedIn recommendations, even if they weren’t directly involved in your work. They’ve gotten to know your skills, potential, and character through the mentoring relationship.
Mentors are well-suited to discuss topics like:
- Your talent, growth potential, and future trajectory
- How you’ve applied their advice and coaching
- Intangible qualities like your drive, attitude, and curiosity
- Your willingness to learn and develop new skills
Aim to get recommendations from mentors who have invested substantial time in guiding your professional growth and development.
Professors/teachers
For recent graduates and those just starting their careers, recommendations from college professors or high school teachers can demonstrate achievements, skills, and potential – especially if you lack extensive work experience.
Academic recommenders can highlight things like:
- Academic accomplishments and extracurricular activities
- Class participation and engagement
- Relevant projects and research work
- Your skills, work ethic, and strengths as a student
Target professors who taught advanced courses in your major and got to know you well. Avoid asking teachers you just had for a general intro class.
Community leaders
For volunteer work, non-profit involvement, community organizing, or service groups – recommendations from organizational leaders or fellow volunteers can validate your efforts and demonstrate skills.
They may cover areas like:
- Your specific contributions and role
- How many hours you volunteered and your level of dedication
- Your organizational, leadership, or technical skills applied
- Ways you made a difference in the community
Aim to get recommendations from people who worked alongside you and can speak in-depth about your volunteer work.
Avoiding ineffective recommenders
While there are many great options for LinkedIn recommenders, there are also some types of people you generally want to avoid asking:
- Family members – Recommendations from family can seem biased and aren’t very credible to prospective employers.
- Friends/classmates – Similarly, most friends don’t have an objective perspective on your work abilities. Prioritize professional connections over personal ones.
- Very recent colleagues – Someone who just started working with you last month won’t be able to provide an in-depth or meaningful recommendation yet.
- Higher-ups you rarely interact with – A CEO or executive who doesn’t know you well can’t authentically vouch for your skills.
- Controversial figures – Avoid recommenders who have reputational issues that could reflect poorly on you.
The most impressive LinkedIn recommendations come from respected professionals with firsthand experience working with you in some capacity. Those are the recommenders worth pursuing.
How to request a recommendation
Once you’ve identified who you want to ask for a recommendation, here are some tips for making the request:
- Choose an appropriate communication channel – a phone call, email, or face-to-face meeting.
- Refresh their memory on how you worked together if it’s been awhile.
- Highlight key projects, accomplishments, and skills you’d like them to focus on.
- Let them know why a recommendation from them would be particularly meaningful.
- Make it easy by sending a link right to your LinkedIn profile to write the recommendation.
- Express your sincere appreciation – provide thanks before and after.
- Offer to write a recommendation for them in return.
Giving recommenders specific guidance on what to include helps them write stronger endorsements. But avoid outright writing the recommendations yourself – those tend to come across as inauthentic.
How many recommendations should you have?
Is there an ideal number of recommendations to aim for on your LinkedIn profile? Here are a few guidelines:
- 3-5 recommendations is a good starting goal if you’re early in your career.
- Aim for 5-8 recommendations once you have 5+ years of experience.
- Senior professionals with 10+ years experience may want 10-15 recommendations.
- More than 15 recommendations runs the risk of overwhelming readers.
Quality matters more than quantity when it comes to recommendations. A handful of detailed, enthusiastic endorsements carry more weight than 15 generic blurbs.
Recommendation numbers by industry
The ideal number of recommendations can also vary based on your industry. Here are some benchmarks to aim for:
Industry | Entry-Level | Mid-Career | Executive |
---|---|---|---|
Technology | 3-5 | 8-10 | 10-15 |
Finance | 3-5 | 8-10 | 10-12 |
Healthcare | 3-5 | 5-8 | 8-12 |
Marketing | 5-8 | 10-12 | 12-15 |
Consulting | 3-5 | 8-12 | 12-15 |
These ranges account for variations in team sizes, client interactions, and networking norms across industries. But the most important factor is still getting meaningful, personalized recommendations.
Recommendation etiquette
Here are some important etiquette tips when requesting and managing LinkedIn recommendations:
- Only ask people who know your work and can offer detailed comments. Avoid putting acquaintances on the spot.
- Give recommenders at least 2-3 weeks to complete recommendations to allow sufficient time.
- Send friendly reminders if recommendations are still pending after a few weeks.
- Express sincere gratitude when people take the time to write recommendations.
- Offer to reciprocate by writing recommendations for your connections.
- Give recommenders the option to decline if they don’t feel comfortable endorsing you.
- Keep your recommendations up-to-date by periodically requesting new ones.
Maintaining good etiquette helps ensure people enjoy recommending you on LinkedIn and are willing to do so again in the future.
Managing outdated or negative recommendations
Over time, you may end up with some LinkedIn recommendations that are no longer relevant or even portray you negatively. Here’s how to handle them:
- Outdated recommendations – Politely message the connection and explain why that older recommendation no longer reflects your work. Offer to remove it if they cannot update their content.
- Recommendations from short-term roles – Briefly worked somewhere for 3 months? See if that connection can revise their recommendation to focus only on your specific, positive contributions during that time.
- Overly generic recommendations – Ask the connection if they can add more details and specific examples to make it stronger. Offer to provide them some reminder notes.
- Negative recommendations – This is tricky but you can request the person revise or remove the recommendation given the detrimental impact. If they refuse, you may need to remove their connection.
By proactively managing your recommendations, you can ensure they all present you in the best possible light throughout your career.
Key takeaways
Here are some key tips to maximize the impact of your LinkedIn recommendations:
- Prioritize recommenders who directly managed your work such as former managers, clients, mentors, and professors.
- Aim for 3-5 recommendations when starting out, increasing to ~10-15 for very experienced professionals.
- Focus on quality over quantity – detailed, enthusiastic endorsements carry the most weight.
- Keep your recommendations up-to-date by requesting new ones every 1-2 years.
- Manage outdated recommendations by refreshing or removing them.
- Show appreciation to anyone taking the time to recommend you.
Great recommendations can give your LinkedIn profile a huge boost. Be thoughtful about who you ask, provide plenty of guidance, and proactively manage your recommendations over time.