01 — Why Recommendations Work
Hiring decisions carry a significant emotional component. Recruiters and hiring managers do not just read what you say about yourself. They look for what others say — and the recommendations section is where your self-portrait is either corroborated or undermined.
A well-crafted recommendation from someone a recruiter respects is the professional equivalent of a verified review from a trusted source. It moves your candidacy from claim to evidence.
02 — The Difference in Practice
A powerful recommendation for a senior executive follows a simple but rigorous structure: context, action, result. It focuses on one specific skill or competency — and one only.
Generic — avoid:
"I had the pleasure of working with Sophie for three years. She is a truly exceptional leader — strategic, empathetic, and always focused on results. I would recommend Sophie without hesitation for any senior leadership role."
This tells us nothing. Sophie could be anyone.
Specific — what to aim for:
"When Sophie joined as CFO, we were eighteen months into a failed ERP implementation that had cost the business €4M and was threatening our operational continuity. Sophie spent two weeks embedded with the IT and finance teams, mapping exactly where the process had broken down. She rebuilt the implementation roadmap herself, renegotiated the vendor contract to recover €1.2M in penalties, and stood in front of the board with a revised plan that was credible precisely because she owned every line of it. We closed the fiscal year on time. What I witnessed was an exceptional capacity to turn structured analytical thinking into decisive action under pressure — a skill that is rare at any level, rarer still at the CFO level."
That recommendation is memorable because it is specific. A recruiter reading it will remember Sophie long after the screen has closed.
03 — The Four Principles
Principle 1: One skill. One story. A recommendation that tries to cover everything ends up doing nothing. Ask your recommender to anchor the entire piece on one skill. The depth of a single example will be more convincing than a paragraph of superlatives across ten dimensions.
Principle 2: Context before character. Before your recommender says anything about you, they should set the scene. What was the situation? What was at stake? Without context, the resolution means nothing.
Principle 3: Show, don't tell. Every compliment should be anchored to a specific, observable behaviour.
- Claim: "She is an exceptional communicator."
- Evidence: "She walked a sceptical board through a €200M acquisition in forty minutes, answered every question without notes, and left the room with unanimous approval."
Principle 4: Results, with numbers where possible. The closer your recommender gets to measurable outcomes — revenue generated, costs reduced, timelines accelerated — the more credible the recommendation becomes.
04 — The Art of Asking
Choose recommenders with surgical precision. Identify people who witnessed your work firsthand, carry credibility with a senior audience, and can recall a specific situation in which your capabilities were genuinely tested.
Don't ask. Brief. Tell them exactly what you are trying to convey, to whom, and why. Point them to the specific situation you would like them to recall.
Sample request: "Hi Marcus, I hope you are well. I am actively exploring CFO opportunities in industrial businesses and am putting together a strong LinkedIn profile for that search. I would love to ask if you would be willing to write a recommendation that speaks to the work we did together during the Düsseldorf plant restructuring in 2021 — particularly my role in financial modelling and creditor negotiations during that period. I am happy to send you a brief draft if that would make it easier."
Offer a draft — and mean it. A well-drafted recommendation lightly edited by the recommender in their own voice is almost always better than a blank page.
Space your requests — and reciprocate. Three or four excellent, specific, well-spaced recommendations will outperform twelve generic ones posted in a rush.
05 — A Final Word
Your LinkedIn profile is often the first and most lasting impression made on the people who decide your professional future. Recommendations are the validation layer that transforms a self-portrait into a verified record.
Do not settle for "I had the pleasure of working with…" Make them tell the real story. The real story is the one that gets you remembered.
Cyrille Gossé is the founder of Elevate Career, an executive advisory practice for senior leaders navigating the plateau, the exit, and the deliberate reinvention.
elevatecareer.io