Overview/What You Will Learn

As important as it is to sell yourself, it is critical to get others to speak highly of you. Find out from Personal Branding Expert William Arruda how testimonials, recommendations and endorsements will help you in your job search, and find out about the many ways you can secure them.

Key Points

• “Crowd sourcing” – that is, finding out about talent and people from other people – is a growing trend in the career world and you want to be out in front of it!  Input from others can validate what you say about yourself.  It gives people a feeling for who you are and what you have to offer.


• On LinkedIn, the Recommendations section is often the second place a hiring manager will go (after the Summary) to learn about a candidate.  Make sure you have recommendations in your LinkedIn profile.


• Seek a good mix of recommendations and make sure they communicate your brand (what is valuable about you) and that they are relevant to your target audience.


• The best way to get recommendations is to give them to others. And also to ask for them. The best time to ask is right after someone has had the opportunity to work with you.


• Take advantage of the new feedback tools and services on the web.  These include:


• BranchOut. Offers opportunities for 140 character endorsements that anyone in your network can provide. The endorsements become part of your BranchOut profile;


• Connect.me and Talent.me;


• 360 Reach Report - includes feedback from others. Applicants sometimes bring this report to their interview.

Your Next Steps / Tips for Success

• Check your LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have recommendations there, ask for them.


• Seek a helpful variety of endorsements from people who know you and know your work best.


• Collect and consolidate feedback you receive on connect.me or talent.me.


• Make sure people are commenting on your blog posts.

William Arruda is an international branding consultant, author and public speaker focused on professional development and executive leadership.  William is the Founder of Reach Personal Branding, the #1 provider of personal branding services to Fortune 500 companies and leading universities, guiding professionals to unearth what makes them exceptional and use their unique gifts and experience to drive value for their career and organization. He lectures and conducts workshops on personal branding at top-tier graduate schools of business, including Harvard, Duke, NYU, Berkeley, Wharton, University of Michigan, UCLA and Cornell. In addition, he lectures and consults to executives at the world's largest corporations including Johnson and Johnson, Price Waterhouse, Sheraton, Microsoft, Disney, Ogilvy and J.P. Morgan.  He is the co-author of Career Distinction: Stand Out By Building Your Brand, a guidebook with the tools managers need to differentiate themselves from their peers and thrive in today’s job market.  William blogs at http://www.thepersonalbrandingblog.com/tag/william-arruda/.