Do LinkedIn recommendations get you noticed?

Do LinkedIn recommendations get you noticed?

I recently started a job search, having decided to resign from my current role, and reached out to my boss, peers, and colleagues to request some LinkedIn recommendations to help me with my job search.

I am very lucky to work with a great set of people and quickly the number of recommendations I have for the last two years at Kanmo Group flooded in.

I am also very lucky, having been on LinkedIn since April 2008 and have had colleagues recommend me for every role I have had, totaling 83 now.

I have always felt that these public recommendations were hugely worthwhile, as unlike references, potential new employers, colleagues, and partners can all learn what prior people who have worked closely with me think.

Having just spent nearly 2 years in a new country, adapting to a new culture, extreme heat (anyone who knows me was shocked by that) and growing/developing a new team of digitally savvy colleagues, it seemed logical that getting my co-workers to recommend me for cultural fit and business success may be even more important than all the statistics I can put on my CV to show that I have been successful.

But I am intrigued, a recent employer who interviewed me, having contacted me through LinkedIn, mentioned at the end of my interview they take references, please can I confirm this will not be a problem.

I asked the interviewer if had she read my LinkedIn page, and she replied “yes it is impressive, that is why I called you”, so I commented that I have around 80 LinkedIn recommendations, including from my current MD, VP’s I worked with and many of my direct reports, to which she mentioned she never looked that far down LinkedIn profiles.

This got me thinking, I have all these great recommendations, but how do I use them to get me noticed in my search for a new role?

I also have had someone in the past tell me they added little value to LinkedIn recommendations, a statement that would carry weight if they only came from friends, but if like in my case they come from C-level colleagues and bosses, executive co-workers and many of the people who have worked in my teams, I struggle to agree with this opinion.

I would love to hear from others in my network, and especially recruiters, what value do you think LinkedIn recommendations bring and how can they be used to boost a job search?

Posted by Craig Wheeler

December 17, 2021