Writing a LinkedIn recommendation for someone else is a great way to help them and potentially help you (especially if they reciprocate)! Just remember, in order to write a recommendation, the other person must be a 1st degree connection.
Here’s the current steps for doing it both on a computer and a mobile device (an Android in my case)
(Steps as of 10/11/2024)
Computer
- Go to the person’s Profile Page on LinkedIn (below is a screenshot of my friend and collaborator, Meryl Evan’s page and if you’re interested in the topic of accessibility, I HIGHLY recommend following her!)
- Click on “More”
- In the drop down menu, choose the option “Recommend”. If you don’t see this option, double check that you are a 1st degree connection with this person. You must have sent them a request to connect AND they need to accept it.
- You are required to enter your relationship with the person and the position that you were in at the time along with your recommendation text which can be up to 3,000 characters (including spaces).
- The menu under Relationship has many options. If more than one is accurate, pick the one that best aligns with the specific information you’re going to be sharing in the recommendation. Note that they don’t have an option to list “family member” or “friend” because LinkedIn really wants the people writing recommendations to have experience in a professional/learning/leadership environment with the person they’re recommending.
- For the “Position at the time” drop-down menu, it will list every position the person has entered into their “Experiences” as well as all of the places they have entered as their “Education” (which will be listed as “Student at _________”. Again, pick the position that is most applicable to the specific details you’ll be including in your recommendation.
- Now back to the most important part, the recommendation itself. I keep saying specific because generic recommendations aren’t very helpful. If I wrote, “I enjoyed working with Meryl”, that means absolutely nothing to a future employer, client or collaborator. You want to give specific details in your cover letter that “show don’t tell” why you have the skills a future employer might be looking for, and the same applies to recommendations you write. If you half ass it or use ChatGPT to entirely write it for you, it won’t have the strength of a heart-felt recommendation. So if you’re going to do it, do it well.
Is this information helpful for you? Consider buying me an oat milk cappuccino to help me offer these resources for free for job seekers and others who want to increase their LinkedIn presence.
Mobile Device
- Go to the person’s Profile Page on LinkedIn (below is a screenshot of my friend and collaborator, Meryl Evan’s page and if you’re interested in the topic of accessibility, I HIGHLY recommend following her!)
- Click on the three dots next to the “Message” button for the “More” menu.
- In this menu, choose the option “Recommend”. If you don’t see this option, double check that you are a 1st degree connection with this person. You must have sent them a request to connect AND they need to accept it.
- Jump to Step 4 of the Computer instructions for more details on how to complete the recommendation.
Is this information helpful for you? Consider buying me an oat milk cappuccino to help me offer these resources for free for job seekers and others who want to increase their LinkedIn presence.
