Recommendations are one of the most underused assets on a LinkedIn profile, largely because both the person asking and the person writing treat the request casually. The asker sends a generic “could you write me a recommendation?” message, and the writer, put on the spot with no direction, defaults to a few warm but content-free sentences. The result sits on thousands of profiles and does nothing for anyone.
The fix isn’t complicated, but it requires treating a recommendation request as a small piece of career strategy rather than a favor to check off. A good recommendation is specific enough that a stranger reading it would understand exactly what you’re capable of and exactly what it was like to work with you. That specificity is entirely a function of how the request was framed — not how eloquent the recommender happens to be.
Why generic recommendations happen — and why they hurt more than they help
The root cause is almost always the request itself. “Hi, would you mind writing me a LinkedIn recommendation?” hands the recommender a blank page and no direction, and most people respond to a blank page with the safest, most generic language available. This isn’t a failure of the recommender’s writing ability — it’s a predictable response to an unspecific ask.
The deeper problem is that a generic recommendation can actively work against you. A recruiter reading “wonderful to work with” learns nothing they couldn’t have assumed on their own, and a stack of similarly vague recommendations starts to read as evidence that nobody who worked with you could point to anything specific. That’s a worse signal than having no recommendations at all, where the profile simply reads as under-built rather than quietly unremarkable.
The context-action-outcome structure that makes a recommendation actually work
Context — the specific project or period
- Name the actual project, initiative, or time period the recommendation covers, not a vague “during their time here.”
- Include the working relationship — manager, peer, cross-functional partner — since it shapes what kind of evidence the recommendation can credibly offer.
- Keep this to one or two sentences; it’s scene-setting, not the substance.
Action — what they specifically did
- Describe a specific behavior or contribution, not a personality trait in isolation — “led the migration to a new CRM across four regional teams” beats “very dedicated.”
- Include at least one detail only someone who actually worked with the person would know — this is what separates a genuine recommendation from a templated one.
- If possible, note how they handled a specific challenge or setback, since this is often more credible than describing routine competence.
Outcome — the measurable or observable result
- Close with the actual outcome where one exists — a number, a delivery, a changed process — rather than ending on a personality compliment.
- If there’s no clean metric, describe the tangible change in the team or project instead of defaulting to “would definitely recommend.”
- Keep the whole recommendation to three to five sentences — length doesn’t add credibility, specificity does.
How to ask, without it feeling like an imposition
The single highest-leverage change most people can make is replacing “could you write me a recommendation” with a specific prompt: “Would you be open to writing a short recommendation about the [specific project] we worked on together — maybe touching on [specific thing you’d like highlighted]?” This does two things at once: it removes the blank-page problem for the recommender, and it steers the recommendation toward the exact positioning you’re trying to build, without asking them to write anything untrue.
Timing matters as much as framing. The best moment to ask is shortly after a project wraps successfully, or when you’re leaving a role and the relationship is warm and the details are still fresh. Asking a former manager for a recommendation eighteen months after you’ve left, with no specific reminder of what you worked on together, makes a generic response far more likely simply because the details have faded.
A real example: an operations manager rebuilding her recommendation section
A client had four LinkedIn recommendations, all variations of “great to work with” and “highly professional,” none of which said anything a recruiter could actually use. She was applying for senior operations roles and needed her profile to demonstrate leadership and cross-functional impact, which none of her existing recommendations touched on at all.
We identified three former colleagues — her prior manager, a cross-functional partner from finance, and a direct report — and drafted specific prompts for each, referencing a distinct project: a vendor consolidation initiative, a cross-team reporting overhaul, and a team restructuring she’d led. All three responded with genuinely specific, detailed recommendations within a week, each highlighting a different dimension of her capability. She told me a hiring manager referenced one of the new recommendations directly in her final-round interview — something that had never happened with her original set.
Common mistakes to avoid
Avoid mass-requesting recommendations from your entire network at once — this produces a flood of rushed, generic responses rather than a small number of considered ones. Avoid writing the entire recommendation yourself and asking someone to simply approve it verbatim — recruiters and savvy readers can often tell when a recommendation doesn’t match the recommender’s actual voice. And avoid only collecting recommendations from managers; a peer or direct-report recommendation often provides evidence of collaboration and leadership that a manager’s perspective alone can’t.
Self-check before you request your next recommendation
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s common practice to draft a starting point for someone to save them time, but the final version should reflect the actual recommender’s voice and specific memories of working with you, not a generic template they simply approve. A recommendation that clearly wasn’t written or personalised by the recommender reads as inauthentic to anyone who looks closely, including recruiters trained to spot this pattern. The better approach is to give the person a few concrete prompts about the project or outcome you’d like highlighted and let them write it, or lightly edit your draft into their own words. Authenticity matters more here than polish.
Three to five strong, specific recommendations from a mix of managers, peers, and if relevant clients or direct reports carries more weight than a large number of generic ones. Quality and diversity of perspective matter more than volume — a recruiter skimming your profile will read two or three recommendations closely at most. Prioritise getting a small number of detailed, specific recommendations over mass-requesting them from your entire network. One excellent recommendation from a former manager outweighs ten generic one-liners from acquaintances.
A generic recommendation like “great to work with, highly recommend” provides zero differentiating information and can actually look worse than no recommendation at all, because it suggests the recommender didn’t have much specific to say. Recruiters and hiring managers are looking for concrete evidence of how you work and what you delivered, not a vague endorsement. The value of a recommendation comes entirely from its specificity — a real project, a real outcome, a real working detail. Generic praise, however well-intentioned, doesn’t do that work.
Ask specifically, not generally — instead of “could you write me a recommendation,” reference a specific project you worked on together and ask if they’d be willing to speak to that particular experience. This gives the person a clear starting point instead of a blank page, which is usually why people put off writing recommendations for weeks. Timing also matters: ask shortly after a successful project or when leaving a role, while the details are still fresh for both of you. A specific, well-timed ask gets a better response than a vague one sent months later.
Yes, particularly at the point where a recruiter or hiring manager is deciding between a small number of finalists and looking for a tie-breaker. A specific, credible recommendation from a former manager can meaningfully reinforce your positioning, especially for softer qualities like leadership or collaboration that are harder to prove through a resume alone. Recommendations carry less weight earlier in a search, when recruiters are mainly screening for keyword and experience match. Treat them as a supporting asset, not the primary lever, and invest your effort accordingly.
