Are Your LinkedIn Recommendations Worthless?
I interface with numerous HR professionals, hiring managers, and recruiters through my business as a resume writer and career consultant, and LinkedIn recommendations are a hot topic. While some LinkedIn members have none, others have hundreds. Can you have too much of a good thing? And, what makes a recommendation attractive to a company that may be interested in interviewing you?
While there is a minimum number of recommendations sourcers believe that an experienced professional is expected to have, (usually at least 10), quality is much preferred over quantity. They also understand outside sales reps will typically have more than a programmer.
Hiring managers are very adept at reading recommendations to determine if there is a legitimate and direct understanding of the jobseekers talents. Then, many take it a step further, and will review the recommenders profile to fully appreciate the connection. Having an unsubstantiated quid pro quo recommendation (not directly working with the individual and observing their actual work), or weak recommendation can do more harm than good, and works unfavorably for even an otherwise qualified candidate.
Many sourcers are frustrated with the maneuvers around recommendations, and will circumvent the process all together. They look at the candidate’s connections list for names of co-workers or managers that worked at the same company, at the same time, and proceed to directly contact them to discuss the candidate even though they have not provided a recommendation on LinkedIn.
What do most managers and recruiters look for in a recommendation? Here are some basic guidelines:
- Proximity: How close and on what level is the business relationship, and have they directly worked with the candidate in a meaningful capacity.
- Detail: Does the recommender have an actual understanding of the jobseekers key skills, abilities, and achievements, and are they described in any detail.
- Sincerity: Is it clear the recommender appreciates, admires, and likes the person they are recommending.
- Relevancy: How recent is the recommendation, and does the information pertain to the position that the company is trying to locate candidates for.
- Legitimacy: Is the professional offering the recommendation a customer or manager – or a friend or colleague trading a recommendation for one on their profile.
While recommendations are a great starting point for a company to review your qualifications or informally background check you, don’t rely on them exclusively to promote your talents. They must be supported at every touch point the company will examine to identify your credibility, brand, and unique value.
Great points to ponder! It’s not hard to see who’s recommendations are coming in from actual co-workers and who’s recommendations are being fabricated by friends. Agreed, quality recommendations are better than quantity. Brenda
Good article, I’ve wondered how HR prople view these recommendations. All of mine, around 11, are unsolicited from people I worked with or for, and I’d have no problem with them being contacted whatsoever. What made me start to question recommendations was when a self professed “guru of networking” sent what appeared to be an automatic response asking me for a recomendation when all he did is forward an email for me to a contact at a company I was interested in. I think a rule of thumb should be to consider these just as seriously as referances you hand to someone……would you really want a prospective employer to call someone who can vouch that you know how to hit “send”?
Brenda & Sue,
Thanks for your comments. Brenda, you are right, the weak recommendations are easy to see through.
And Sue, you bring up another excellent point, when someone you barely know asks you to recommend them, they lose credibility also. I love when you said this: “would you really want a prospective employer to call someone who can vouch that you know how to hit “send”?”
There aren’t a lot of upsides to gathering meaningless recommendations, yet the practice continues.
excellent points!!!! I’m here to tell you that the good recruiters see right through this. These so-called gurus of LI are actually out there telling people that they should request recommendations ….the more the merrier.
I think the whole thing is ridiculous.
I’m the manager for the Top Recommended Group on LI –while this group is made up of ‘quality’ people with quality discussions going on all the time, the bottom line is that the LI recommendations really don’t mean much. What makaes this group a quality one is the quality relationships that are developing amongst quality folks!
My first action as manager was to create a discussion post that asked: “What is the best way to collect recommendations on LI?” (My point is that one only collects them if one has done good work —and these recommendations come unsolicited.)
I caused lots of controversy with the group with this first posting — but I was able to find out more about where people stood in the group by this one question.
Now I’m trying to teach them the fine, fine points of relationship building. (some of them have difficulty differentiating relationship building from “networking”…..and they are two very different things).
good article!!!
Erika,
Thanks for stopping by. I am a member of Top Recommended People, and your post triggered this article. (I mentioned that when I responded to your inquiry:)
I was hoping by showing professionals that the managers and recruiters that they want to attract are turned off by this, that would encourage them to rethink their practice. Nice to be in the same corner with you. See you at Top Recommended!
…..I”m really honored!!!!
What I’m saying is being heard and re-iterated!!
Are you watching the development of the discussion around relationship-building that I’m doing?
(I’m doing this both as a service to the TRP group and also to see what people really understand about the dynamics of realtionships. I’m finding – from people’s comments – that most don’t really know much about it. And why should they? The fine point so building quality relationships isn’t taught!)
Love to hear your comments about this…..
erika
Great tips on how to use Linkedin recommendations. Answers a lot of questions I had. Thanks.
Great article. Thank you for reminding us that this is LinkedIn and not Facebook.
I teach a 1st Semester college class called ‘Strategies for the Technical Professional’, and among the other topics I teach new students about Social Media (starting with LinkedIn). Every semester I always get at least 2 or three students that ask for a recommendation from me within the first two weeks of knowing them in the class. I then have to explain to the class the purpose of recommendations and that I wouldn’t be able to give an honest recommendation for them based on only two weeks worth of knowledge (I barely recognize my students by sight let alone name at such an early point in the class…I have over 100 students per semester). I explain that my own credibility is also on the line when I write recommendations, and therefore do not even consider writing a recommendation until final grades are posted…and I only write recommendations for students that made an impression during the course through their attention to detail or participation in group discussions, etc. I’ve written only about 10 recommendations over the past 2 years…most students do not ask for one. But at least 75% of them do GREAT things with LinkedIn…from being offered jobs to gathering important research information for projects. Great post on recommendations (I’ll forward to my students… ; )
Great comments here !
From someone in sales & marketing, the best recommondations have come from my past clients. Nothing better than getting a good rec from someone you have served. Co-worker recs are nice but they appear contrived. Your friends and co-workers are in your corner. Recs from respected industry leaders are very good. Of course, when you request a rec, which is what most people do, it’s presumed that no one will say bad things about you. It’s the texture of the message they deliver that really matters.
A good rec from a customer or client goes along way. It becomes part of your personal brand. Besides LinkedIn, every year, I’ve made it a habit to personally request my clients to grade my performance and my company’s performance so that I can use as a metric for continous improvement. If the grade is B or C, it tells me they are unhappy about something and are looking elsewhere.
Mike, glad you liked the post, and Sunni I agree – LI is not Facebook. Many folks who are on FB just hope on over to LI w/o understanding the differences.
Brian, I am impressed you incorporate LI and social media into your course; that is very forward thinking and will give your students an edge – they’re the lucky ones. A lot of campus career services don’t assist students with that yet. I have a companian article to this one “How to Ruin Your Career on LinkedIn in 4 Easy Steps” that might be a useful resource for them also if needed.
Dave, I like how you think of your recommendations as part of your brand, that is a great way to look at it and if more peeps took that approach they may think twice before damaging it with contrived recommendations.
August, this is a great post. Transparency is key, so are legitimate recommendations. I disagree with Eric in part. Strategic recommendations by high profile thought leaders in one’s industry are critical. When someone recommends me, I ask them to mention one thing that they think I do exceedingly well. August, you hit the nail on the head. A good sourcer/recruiter will be able to see whether it’s a friend saying “he’s a great guy,” verses a professional saying “John has honed his social media skills and is able to increase employee visibility, attract top talent, and deliver new clients to your door step.” Now that’s a recommendation that has traction. I like you so much as a professional, and in the brief time I’ve known you on twitter, I’ve come to consider you a friend.
Your Twitter Pal,
@HRMargo Margo Rose http://HRMargo.com
Great read on LI recommendations. I break down recommendations into 5 categories:
From:
1. Clients
2. Candidates/Customers ( ppl I have directly placed or helped)
3. Co-workers
4. Friends
5. Misc – entrepreneurial, etc.
I think 3 recommendation for every 100 connections is a good %. Compelling recommendations that must complete a story about you.
Over the last several years I have seen people at large corporations add 20-30+ recommendations from their coworkers. As a recruiter that really turns me off from viewing their full LI profile and taking them seriously, to a recruiter its a sign of insincerity, and gives me a small insight to your character.
I have also worked with Senior HR/Corporate Recruiters who view this as the a positive effect (20-30+) in the recruiting process b/c they see this as insight from peers and colleagues, almost like a first reference to day to day life with the candidate.
One thought I can recommend to a job seeker is do your due diligence on the quality of the recommendation you are about to receive, and keep in mind what “real” value you will attain.
Thanks Margo and Amos for your insight on how you view LI recommendations; it’s a great dialouge that no doubt will be debated for a long time to come.