Refuse professional recommendations from your family
Conflict of interest creates bias (or at least the perception of it).
Positive references are very valuable in your job search and on your LinkedIn profile, but there is one type of recommendation that you must avoid - no matter how positive it is:
Do NOT obtain a recommendation from someone in your immediate family, because it is a blatant conflict of interest. Even if the substance of the recommendation is honest and accurate, it creates a perception of favouritism or nepotism. If your future employers find out about the full relationship between you and the recommender, they will frown upon this and deem you to be less trustworthy.
I have been mentoring a data scientist named Joshua1. His boyfriend, Terry, is a business analyst. I enjoyed meeting Terry at a social event, and I looked at his LinkedIn profile afterward. I noticed that Terry wrote a glowing recommendation for Joshua; it turns out that Terry supervised Joshua when they worked at the same insurance company a few years ago. I immediately advised Joshua to remove this recommendation from his LinkedIn profile.
Here is an entirely plausible scenario:
Joshua brings Terry to a Christmas party at his office and introduces his boyfriend to all of his co-workers.
The Vice President of Human Resources, Rhonda, meets Terry and remembers the recommendation that Terry wrote on Joshua’s LinkedIn profile.
When Rhonda first interviewed Joshua to work in that company, she was impressed by that recommendation, and it influenced her to hire him.
Now, she realizes that Terry’s recommendation may not have been entirely based on Joshua’s merits.
This would be a breach of trust, and both Terry and Joshua would ruin their professional reputations as a result.
How do you overcome this problem? Get recommendations from other supervisors and clients - those who do NOT have any conflict of interest with you. Furthermore, these people 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.
Your references are an important part of your professional brand and reputation. Make sure that they are based on merit, not a conflict of interest.
I have changed their names and a few minor details to maintain confidentiality.