Jessica Holbrook Hernandez
LinkedIn recommendations are a tremendous asset to your job search. You can quickly and easily point a potential employer to your LinkedIn profile and they’ll be able to see verifiable references and recommendations of the quality of your work and the results you deliver. Positive words can be powerful motivators.
So, how do you choose the right people to request a recommendation from? And how do you know if they’ll give you a good recommendation?
2. The Team Player
When you work in a team on a specific project and the collaboration is a success, that’s the time to ask your teammates to write a recommendation for you based on the outcome and collaboration of that specific project. You can also return the favor; since you worked together you’ll be able to easily attest to their work ethic, problem solving, communication, teamwork, fresh ideas, motivation—the list goes on…
5. The Board Or Volunteer Head
Are you an active member of a nonprofit or involved in volunteering for a great cause? Ask someone who oversees the organization to recommend you for the work you’ve been doing. Not only is this more positive PR for your profile, but it shows your interests and desire to help others.
Have some additional ideas for great LinkedIn recommendation requests? Share them here; I’d love to hear them! And while LinkedIn is on your mind I’d love to connect so feel free to send me an invitation here.
See all 5 people and the complete Careerealism article
Robin Ryan
Andrew is a Baby Boomer and Director at a
Fortune 500 company that I was working with last week to write his
LinkedIn profile when I asked him why he didn’t post on LinkedIn. He was
trying to get more attention for himself while looking for a specific
kind of job. He has never posted before and needed some guidance on
exactly what to put out there. I turned to Hannah Morgan, a guru of job search information.
Before becoming a job search strategist and facilitator, Morgan of
Rochester New York spent time working in HR recruiting where a lot of
hiring was going on. She also worked for Lee Hecht Harrison doing
outplacement classes and I asked for her advice.
I asked why people don’t post and she noted three reasons:
#1 they don’t know what to post
#2 they worry it’s self-promotion
#3 they don’t realize it is important to post and share with their network
The easiest thing to do is post about your job, occupation, your
company, your industry and share that with your network. If you found it
on LinkedIn, then just re-share it. A good place to find articles is
Twitter. Also, consider the following business newsfeeds and be the
first to post big business news. You need to be fast on these within the
first couple hours of when the story breaks. Mergers, Acquisitions,
major new product releases. I recommend you follow the NY Times and Bloomberg. You must add a comment before you post. Pick out a key point or simply ask a question.
Why take the time to post
When you share it shows up in the news feed of all the people that
you’re connected to. This keeps you up-to-date with your group and the
shares can engage others and get you on the radar of people in front of
your network. It might also attract the attention of a recruiter or HR
person.
One misstep to avoid is do not share anything negative on social
media. Always say something positive, for example, maybe your company is
doing a layoff don’t post “oh my old company downsizing again.”
Remember words live forever on social media so be overly cautious about
what you put out there, Morgan recommends.
People using LinkedIn expect to see posts in their feed that are
professional (work-related), helpful, educational, useful, and/or
informative.
What to Post
Are you looking for ideas for what to post on LinkedIn? Morgan
offered 16 different types of status updates you can adapt and use.
1. Ask a question. Start a conversation about
something in your field or industry or ask for advice. You want to get
comments to your questions as this keeps the post live in other people’s
feed.
2. Use hashtags. If you want to make sure that
people notice the content of what you’re posting, just use hashtags. You
can use up to three. so if you are writing about the company say for
example your writing about T-Mobile you would do #TMobile or if you’re
writing about your industry you would do #finance as this allows your
information to get more attention and possibly a recruiter might be
looking for it.
3. Share a Video. You may not feel comfortable on camera, but you can share a video that educates or inspires.
See all 17 ways and the complete Forbes article