The Power of Recommendations

I learned in my public relations class that a third-party endorsement can be much more powerful than a company bragging on itself. My professor explained that advertising is a company saying, "Look how great I am." Publicity, however, is someone else saying how great you are, lending the message more credibility. I think a good recommendation works in the same way and can sometimes be more powerful than a good resume.

Like any other job candidate, I am biased about my own skills, education, experience, and potential contribution to an employer. Many times, job candidates have similar education or work experience. Resumes can also be "tweaked" so that candidates look better on paper than they do in person. Unknown discrepancies between "person" and "paper" are why third-party endorsements in the form of objective recommendations are so necessary and powerful.

I once thought that recommendations were only for supervisors. I have since learned that recommendations can come from many different sources. I now have recommendations from professors based on my academic work and from fellow classmates based on our work together on group projects. I especially think that peer recommendations can be enlightening for potential employers, especially if the job requires teamwork or leadership. There's no better proof of how well a job candidate works on or leads a team than a recommendation from someone that has been on a team with the candidate.

Online resources make it easier to ask for and receive recommendations. I use two online resources - Linkedin and this blog. On Linkedin, you can request recommendations for any job or educational experience from any of your professional connections. Traditional recommendation letters sometimes require a long turn-around time because the recommender normally writes a full page or two (which can be hard to fit into a busy schedule). Linkedin recommendations however are usually shorter (a paragraph or two) than a traditional letter. This means you're more likely to get the recommendation in a timely manner (like before that important interview).

For my professional associates that aren't on Linkedin, I have a blog post called "All-Call for Commendations," where they can leave recommendations as comments on the blog. When requesting a recommendation, I'll look for an associate on Linkedin first, but will then email a link to the "commendations" blog post if that person doesn't have a Linkedin profile.

For work supervisors and some special situations, I still prefer the traditional recommendation letter. It's what employers are familiar with, and professional letterhead still has an impact. Plus, it's nice to have a traditional letter to give a potential employer in person. I always make sure to have PDF copies of these letters as well to post on my website HireThatRedhead.com.

I currently have five traditional recommendation letters, three peer recommendations on my blog post, and two Linkedin recommendations (with hopefully more to come). I've synthesized all of my various recommendation sources into one place on the Recommendations page of my website to make it more employer-friendly. Hopefully, with so many other people speaking so highly of me (in addition to my own self-promotion), some lucky employer out there will be convinced to "Hire That Redhead."