Do Hiring Managers Care About LinkedIn Recommendations?

• If you're on the job market, you need a strong LinkedIn profile.
• That includes a handful of great recommendations.
• 85 of the 88 hiring managers we spoke to said they always read LinkedIn recommendations.

If you're looking for a job, you've probably realized how crucial it is to have a presence on LinkedIn.

But you've probably also wondered: Do I really need LinkedIn recommendations? Does anyone actually read them?

We asked around. The answer is, overwhelmingly, yes. Hiring managers read whatever they can find.

While most said it's rarely a deal-breaker if a candidate doesn't have any recommendations, they agreed that a handful of really good ones makes a positive impression.

"When I see a candidate with a complete LinkedIn profile that they put time into building, it shows me they care to impress us," said Fig Loans co-founder John Li. "That means a lot."

The Top 5 Reasons Hiring Managers Read Your LinkedIn Recommendations

Hiring managers told us there are a lot of reasons to pay attention to peer recommendations. Here are five reasons they're reading yours:

1. To Substantiate Claims

"Recommendations can be very helpful in proving your abilities in the workplace — especially when they come from respected people within your industry. They are essentially a way of backing up your claims via a trusted third party."

— Andrew Fennell, Founder and CEO, StandoutCV

2. To Vet Authenticity

"LinkedIn recommendations are professional proof of a candidate's competence. As a marketer, I'm an advocate for social credibility. Testimonials allow me to vet the skills and authenticity of job applicants. These are essential in the healthcare industry because most employees are directly involved in people's well-being and safety."

— Stephan Baldwin, Founder, Assisted Living Center

3. To Confirm Culture Fit

"I immediately search for any input into the person's personality. Yes, I want them to have the skills and abilities to get the job done, but I also want to make sure that they'll fit into our company and be pleasant to work with. The recommendations that share tidbits about what it's like to work with that person can make a huge difference in my impression of them."

— Daivat Dholakia, VP of Product and Growth, Essenvia

4. To Identify Soft Skills

"It's good to read recommendations that speak to someone's soft or human skills — that helps us understand how a candidate might fit the position. A genuine and honest story tells us more about a person than most people can imagine."

— Ricardo Luís Von Groll, Content Manager, Talentify

5. To Identify Hard Skills

"LinkedIn recommendations can often give you a roadmap to an applicant's skills and work history that may not be as apparent from their resume. In my experience, recommenders tend to be honest and frank when selecting skills for others. Applications don't always provide a full list of the hard skills a candidate possesses, so I absolutely look over LinkedIn recommendations to see what else I might find."

— John Jacob Salzarulo, Co-founder and CEO, Hoist

Frequently Asked Questions About LinkedIn