LinkedIn recommendations are one of the few places on your profile where someone else vouches for you in their own words. Recruiters notice that. But most recommendations early-career candidates collect say something like "Jane is a hardworking team player who always delivers" and stop there. That sentence could describe anyone. It adds nothing.
Here is how to get recommendations that actually support your candidacy.
Why Generic Recommendations Fail
A vague recommendation does not tell a recruiter anything specific about what you did or how you did it. It reads like a form letter. Worse, when every recommendation sounds the same, they blur together and the recruiter skips the section entirely.
The goal is a recommendation that names a concrete situation, describes what you did, and states a clear outcome. That is the same structure as a strong STAR interview answer, and it works for the same reason: specificity is credible.
Who to Ask
For students and early-career candidates, good recommenders include:
- A direct supervisor from an internship or part-time job
- A professor who saw you produce real work, not just attend class
- A project lead from a campus organization or volunteer role
- A client or collaborator from freelance or contract work
You do not need many. Two or three strong, specific recommendations outperform six generic ones.
How to Make the Ask
This is the part most people get wrong. They send a message that says "Would you be willing to write me a LinkedIn recommendation?" and leave the recommender to figure out what to say. The result is a polite but hollow paragraph.
Instead, when you ask, give the person a short brief. Tell them:
- The type of role you are targeting (so they can pitch toward it)
- One specific project or moment you worked on together
- One or two skills you would most like highlighted
You are not writing it for them. You are giving them the raw material so they can write something useful without spending an hour trying to remember details.
A short example of how to frame the ask:
"I am applying to data analyst roles and would love a recommendation from you. If you are open to it, the project that might be most relevant is the customer churn analysis we ran last spring. The skills I am hoping to highlight are SQL and translating findings for non-technical stakeholders. Happy to return the favor or send a draft if that would help."
That message takes thirty seconds to read and gives the recommender everything they need.
What a Strong Recommendation Actually Looks Like
A useful recommendation has three parts, in roughly this order:
- A specific context (what project, role, or situation)
- What you did and how you approached it
- A concrete result or a clear statement of your ability
It does not need to be long. Four to six sentences that follow that structure will outperform a twelve-sentence paragraph full of adjectives.
One More Thing: Placement Matters
If you receive a recommendation that is particularly strong and relevant to your current job search, ask the recommender to write it for your most recent or most relevant position. Recommendations are attached to specific roles on your profile. A strong recommendation sitting under a role from three years ago gets far less attention than one attached to your most recent experience.
Take ten minutes today to identify one person who could write a specific, credible recommendation for you, and send them a brief, focused ask.