How to ask a stranger to endorse you for a job
Using LinkedIn Recommendations to build your credibility
Suppose that you worked hard to attend networking events and met a veteran data scientist named Tanya. You asked her for an informational interview, and you held a productive meeting with her at her office. It just so happens that her employer is hiring a data scientist, and you are interested in this company and industry. While Tanya finds you to be impressive and wants to refer you for this job, she doesn’t know you well, and she certainly cannot attest to your competence and work ethic as a data scientist. How can you help her to endorse you as a candidate for that job opening?
One effective way to help Tanya (and yourself) is to get LinkedIn Recommendations from your former supervisors or clients. These people should have held roles that had real stakes in your work. (In other words, they had an strong incentive to make sure that you performed well in your role.) They monitored your work closely and observed your work habits, and they could honestly say if you were good at your job.
On LinkedIn, there is a mechanism for you to formally ask someone to recommend you. The process involves identifying your professional relationship with that person, and you have the option of writing a personalized note to specify what the recommendation can mention. You should use this chance to highlight your major accomplishments while working for that supervisor or client, including any awards that you won, projects that you successfully completed, or measurable outcomes that related to the overall business objective.
When Tanya endorses you for a job opening, she can forward these recommendations to her employer as evidence of your competence. This allows her to endorse you in a credible way without fabricating anything positive about you. She can maintain her integrity and still endorse you in an honest and substantive way.
Besides earning money and promotions, a good performance in your job will give you positive references for your future job applications. Thus, if you ever leave a job (including an internship that has a finite duration) on good terms with your supervisor or client, you should ask them to write a LinkedIn recommendation for you shortly afterward. Your performance will still be fresh in their memory, and they will be more enthusiastic about writing a good recommendation for you.
LinkedIn Recommendations are an effective but underrated way to polish your LinkedIn profile for your job search. I encourage you to read my advice about this in my earlier article for The American Statistical Association (ASA), which was entitled “Mastering LinkedIn: A Statistician’s Guide to Building a Standout Profile”. I also encourage you to read my LinkedIn profile. I have received 17 recommendations (including two from supervisors and two from internal clients), and I have also written 25 recommendations for others. I hope that these examples can give you a sense of what makes a good recommendation.