Adding recommendations to your LinkedIn profile is one more way to boost your credibility and showcase your accomplishments to potential employers. Recommendations on LinkedIn can come from supervisors, co-workers, colleagues, and anyone who knows your work well and can speak to your capabilities, strengths, and positive work style. Recommendations from people you have worked with carry a lot of weight.

Tips to requesting a recommendation

• Don’t be afraid to ask for recommendations.
• Reach out to a variety of people who know your work.
• Examples might be people you have teamed up with on a special project, someone you collaborated with in a student organization or professional association, someone who has witnessed you give a successful presentation at a conference or workshop, etc.
• Personalize your message and include specifics on how you would like your contact to recommend you.
• Offer to write a draft of the recommendation for them to edit.
• Give your contact an out by asking if they have the time to write a recommendation. This way if they aren’t interested they don’t feel obligated.
• If a contact has already written a recommendation for you outside of LinkedIn, you can forward them a copy and ask if they might upload it to LinkedIn.
• Set a goal of getting 3-5 recommendations.
• And be willing to return the favor!

How to request a recommendation

• Move your cursor over your photo in the top right of your homepage and select “Privacy & Settings”
• Click the “Manage your recommendations” link under Helpful Links in the middle of the page.
• Click the “Ask for recommendations” tab at the top of the page.
• Select a position from the “What do you want to be recommended for?” dropdown list.
• In the “Who do you want to ask?” section, enter a connection in the text field or click the address book icon to search for connections.
• Enter your request in the “Create your message” section. You can use the message provided or customize it. I recommend customizing and personalizing your message.
• Click “Send”.
• It’s that easy!

Check the iSchool Career Development pages for more information on using LinkedIn in your job search.