Make and Receive Quality Recommendations

One of the key features of LinkedIn is the ability to give and receive recommendations.

You need to make the recommendations you give and receive count. Here is the criteria.

1. You should have at least one recommendation from an immediate manager.
2. You should have at least one recommendation from a co-worker.
3. You should have at least one recommendation from someone who worked for you.
4. You should have at least one recommendation from a vendor or supplier, if possible.
5. You should have at least one recommendation from a manager that you did not report to directly.
6. Recommendations should tell a story. What was the problem you identified, what were the actions you took, and what was the result.
7. If your recommendations are simply "Tom was a great guy to work with, I would recommend him to anyone." Send it back, you can even suggest content as long as it is true. Some people simply cannot write a recommendation.
8. This is my own biased idea of a great recommendation. "Shortly after Tom started he recognized that we were over paying on our vendor maintenance agreements by 20 to 30%. Tom identified that we were paying monthly support charges for computer racks, cabinets, and shelves. Tom identified all of the overages and contacted the vendor; his efforts are saving the company over $2500 per month." The recommendation tells a story and allows a recruiter to interpolate what Tom might do for the new company.
9. Write great recommendations about others first, then if what they write isn't exactly what you want you can feel comfortable asking for a revision.

Great recommendations will help get you noticed by recruiters and hiring managers. Happy networking!