4 Reasons You Might Not Get Recommendations On LinkedIn

by Kristin Johnson

It was easy to get recommendations when you were six. All you really needed was a pocketful of Jolly Ranchers (especially the watermelon kind). Kids you didn’t know were suddenly your friends. They told other kids about you and suddenly they were your friends, too. It was all fun and games until it got hot outside and the Jolly Ranchers got melty and sticky.

Now you’re a grownup, and a pocket full of Jolly Ranchers won’t do you much good, especially if you’re looking for a job. And the problem isn’t just that you can’t send Jolly Ranchers through the Internet. No, it’s more complicated than that.

Have you ever asked a LinkedIn Connection for a Recommendation and heard… nothing? They days turn into weeks, and you know darn well they’re active on LinkedIn because you see them in your feed? Frustrating, isn’t it? And confusing.

There’s any number of reasons, good and not-so-good, why your Connection may not have responded to your Recommendation request. Here are some reasons you might not get recommendations on LinkedIn:

1. He may not know how to respond to your Recommendation request.

It’s within the realm of possibility that your Connection is a bit of a luddite. Maybe he can do basic things LinkedIn – perhaps a friend helped him set up his profile. But when he got your Recommendation request, he didn’t know what to do. If you are certain this Recommendation is worth the time and effort for both of you, offer a lesson – screen shots via e-mail, possibly, or a visit to his office.

2. She honestly may have forgotten.

Maybe she is in the middle of a big project at work, or maybe she’s overwhelmed for other reasons. If you have every reason to believe this person would give you a good recommendation, it’s okay to send a reminder message or e-mail, “Hey, did you forget…?” You can also send your request again.

• Go to your Settings and enter your password.
• Click “Manage your recommendations.”
• Find the position you’ve requested the recommendation for and click “Manage.”
• Find the person you want to remind and click on “Resend” next to her name.
• Edit the message and hit send. I put in an extra “Just a polite reminder :-)” at the top.

Reasons 3,4, and the complete Careerealism article