In response to Jeanne Male’s response … So I guess I shouldn’t ask for an endorsement, huh.

Kidding aside, I’ve had this on my desktop knowing that I would want to refer to it some time again and here I am, EXACTLY 2 months to the day and “yes” again I am reviewing this.

I am one who does believe in “steering” and actually request people steer me on their own behalf. I want to help. I may be able to talk to different knowledge areas or competenties, etc. and in an attempt to sincerely help someone, why not ask for some prompts?

in any case, I’ll just leave this post here on my desktop. See yoou in a couple of monthe, Miriam!

Rob

Kidding aside, I’ve had this on my desktop knowing that I would want to refer to it some time again and here I am, EXACTLY 2 months to the day and “yes” again I am reviewing this.

I am one who does believe in “steering” and actually request people steer me on their own behalf. I want to help. I may be able to talk to different knowledge areas or competenties, etc. and in an attempt to sincerely help someone, why not ask for some prompts?

in any case, I’ll just leave this post here on my desktop. See yoou in a couple of monthe, Miriam!

Rob

Jeanne – Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I understand what you are saying about “steering,” but I don’t really think that providing information to help the endorser is “steering,” necessarily. I think of it as informing! It is up to the author to decide what to say. Since this was a post and not a chapter, I did not address the issue of who you should ask, but that plays a big role in how to approach this topic.

If someone whose work I appreciate writes a note requesting my endorsement with some adjectives they like to use to describe themselves, I would certainly appreciate it and want to write something that would help them. I would make every effort to address their adjectives, and would not think of it as being asked to “rubber stamp” anything. But, that’s me! It’s important for people to know their audience.

Maybe it’s a good idea to remind everyone that the note does not need to be the same for each endorser. The main point of this post is that I believe it is the job seeker’s responsibility to provide information to help the person writing the recommendation decide what to say. Your point about seeing what others say about you is interesting and well taken, but I think there are other ways to learn what people think of you. (And, I’m not convinced that providing information prevents people from sharing what they really think.)

As anything with job search, there is no one RIGHT way, only best practices that we can advise and then target when we work with clients one-on-one. Thanks for extending the conversation! I appreciate your ideas and the opportunity to clarify the post.

I still receive too may unprofessional requests for endorsements; the stock request from people I barely recall. When assessing endorsements, I look at the quality of the endorsements: from whom, how they are written, duration of working relationship, etc. I’ll share a slightly different perspective on a few points:

Number: Candidates should have a credible number of endorsements based upon duration in the workforce: e.g. 15 years.

Reciprocation: Agree that endorsements shouldn’t be a quid pro quo, it’s good business practice to reciprocate (if you can genuinely do so) when someone provides an unsolicited endorsement.

Steering Content: I don’t encourage “steering” unless trying to refresh memory regarding the work you did together. I have experienced someone dropping adjectives and it felt like being asked to rubber stamp a letter of recommendation. Dropping adjectives can make the recommendations too similar but worse still, miss out on learning what others really see as your best traits. Then, if you identify a trend in what others say about you, you have found your authentic personal brand.

Miriam, I’m glad that you posted on this topic – it is both needed and important. I plan to add it to the discussions in the LinkedIn JobLife Architects group. Look for it here: http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?searchQuestions=&gid=1875376&answerCategory=mra&trk=myg_ugrp_dis