Comments on: LinkedIn Tip – Got Street Cred?

By: Irene Koehler

Irene Koehler — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:16:02 +0000

I’m so glad this was helpful to you. Thanks for stopping by!

By: Tzechiu Lei

Tzechiu Lei — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:08:51 +0000

Great tip, Irene! Thanks so much!!

By: Joy Montgomery

Joy Montgomery — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:16:08 +0000

lol

My mother didn’t quite get the concept of self-employment and building a business. When I would take her places and introduce her to people, she would jump into a conversation with, “Do you have a job for Joy? She’s desperate for work!” You can pretty much kiss the street cred goodbye right then. I didn’t ask her for a LinkedIn recommendation.

By: Matches Malone

Matches Malone — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:23:25 +0000

I know that recommendations is a small part of the LI currency, however, I tend to ignore them. I do give them when asked. I write something to the best of my ability, and hope that it doesn’t get misinterpreted by the unwashed masses.

By: A. Jane Chambers

A. Jane Chambers — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:47:22 +0000

I was recently contacted by a person seeking a recommendation from me. I will particularly keep in mind your suggestion that an effective recommendation includes specific experiences or strengths and not just general platitudes.

By: Todd Smith

Todd Smith — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:41:26 +0000

Good points, Irene. I did give my dad a recommendation on LinkedIn, but I said I was his son in the comment.

By: Rax Lakhani

Rax Lakhani — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:34:22 +0000

Irene,

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently as I’ve had a lot of people contacting me asking for recommendations which they can plaster all over their LinkedIn / Naymz profiles. I guess it’s that time of year when everyone starts career prospecting – enhanced by the uncertainty of job security in the current economic climate.

Hell, even I’ve been guilty of touting for testimonials (tout-imonials?)of late.

Some of the jobs currently being posted on LinkedIn are asking for candidates with x number of recommendations as a pre-requisite for CV submissions which is a sign of the times.

To gauge whether someone’s recommendations are genuine I tend to look for consistency in what is being said over multiple entries. Also, there should be an average of one recommendation from each post the individual has worked in. Gaps in recommendations start to stand out in the same way that employment voids do on a printed CV.

As for my mum, once she masters the video recorder and the microwave, I’ll ask her to recommend me on LinkedIn. Who knows – maybe she’ll write something nice before I retire?