How to Export LinkedIn Recommendations?

Have you ever watched the movie Mary Poppins? When she comes for a job interview, one of the first questions Mr. Banks asks her is if she has a recommendation letter. These recommendation letters never really went out of fashion.

They just changed their appearance and now are mainly in the shape of digital paragraphs written by your former colleagues, managers, etc., and where is better to share them than on a professional job-oriented social platform? But some people might wonder how to export LinkedIn recommendations and add them to their CV. There is not really a formal and announced way for that.

I apologize for the confusion in my previous response. To export LinkedIn recommendations, you can follow these steps:

1. Go to your LinkedIn profile and click on the "Me" icon.
2. Select "Settings & Privacy" from the dropdown menu.
3. Click on "Privacy" and then scroll down to "How LinkedIn uses your data."
4. Select "Getting an archive of your data" and then click on "Request Archive."
4. LinkedIn will send you an email with a link to download your data. Once you receive the email, click on the link and follow the prompts to download your data, including your recommendations.

You may read about some different ways like PDF services and/or LinkedIn’s own PDF feature. I’m not saying they don’t work, but LinkedIn’s PDF service is disappointing.

I mean, you log into your account and open your profile and click on more, then select ‘Save to PDF’.

The profile gets downloaded, and you open it to see that 2/3 of the profile, including recommendations, skills, awards, etc. is not there. That is what disappointment from an excellent social network feels like.

The other CV maker services might disappoint you the same way; for example, I got a chrome extension named “the responsive CV,” which simply did not work on my system.

Maybe it does in yours, and I tried to export my profile as a PDF in some other service and couldn’t really use them as well. So, is there no way to export recommendations?

There is still one way to export LinkedIn recommendations. That is the traditional beloved copy/paste.

It might seem a bit unprofessional, but it is the easiest and most reliable way if you insist on having LinkedIn recommendations in your CV.

It also benefits you. I mean, who knows when people decide to remove their account or change their company name or field of work? This way, you still have those valuable recommendations in a safe place and can always use them.

1. So log into your account,
2. open your profile from the ‘Me’ button,
3. scroll down until you see the recommendations section,
4. and copy the content you want, then paste them into the Microsoft Word app where you are writing your CV.

You can also paste them into a separate document and send them as a list of recommendations that is attached to your CV.

It is suggested to edit the spelling and Grammar mistakes that people might have when writing these recommendations, but never tamper with the content of the testimonies.

They are not on LinkedIn anymore, so don’t forget to enter the name and title of the writer precisely, and it is recommended to include their picture and LinkedIn URL.

You can copy their picture from the recommendations section, or if you think the quality is too low, you can either go to their profile to see if the photo is better there, or you can look into their posts to see if they have a suitable photo there (ask them if you can use their photo for the purpose).

And you can always bring your LinkedIn URL in your resume instead of all these troubles.

Why the recommendations?

The recommendations and endorsements are so valuable on LinkedIn. They are the live proof of your expertise, professional characteristics, skills, talents, etc., and the most important thing is that you did not self-praise over a matter; these testimonies are coming from your managers, CEOs, and colleagues that you used to work with.

Although it is becoming harder and harder to test these recommendations’ credibility, most employers and recruiters still rely on them and decide if they want to work with you based on this information.

Recommendations can be the one thing that makes you shine among other competitors. They add value and cause people to trust you much more accessible. They are the live image of you and your behavior in the workplace.

Although not having them is no deal breaker, it is still scarce for people to have more than a few genuine recommendations in their LinkedIn profile and believe that the recruiters can say if one recommendation is fake, and it is a terrible impression when they find out that you faked one.

It portrays you as a liar before their eyes and causes them to make up their minds about you even before meeting you in person.

It is out of the frying pan into the fire; please do not get tricked by those ads that suggest buying fake recommendations.

You should also know that many of the recommendations have no effect on the process of acquiring a job. Most of the hiring managers agree that a lot of these endorsements are too vague, using general words and terms like “Kim is so good and energetic. She is good at the job, etc.”

I mean, yeah, it is fine in every aspect, except a recruiter might see thousands of recommendations with the same tone, they get bored after the first few.

Do you remember the song that used to tremble your heart? Think that you have repeatedly listened to it millions of times; it loses the vibe and effect eventually, right?

Although we can’t do a thing about how people write their recommendations, we still can improve their quality by correcting the mistakes they might have made.

You can also ask these people to consider your skills, attitude, and the good moments you had at work, to use the most positive adjectives they can think of that describes you, to mention the problems they could solve with your help, etc. that is how you stand out to be the other song that trembles the recruiter’s heart.

Did you need to know how to export LinkedIn recommendations? We just told you how to do it.

They are essential so it would be a very good idea if you could include them in your CV, but it is suggested to attach them in a separate document or bring them to the bottom of your resume. You don’t want the recruiters to think of you as a selfish person, do you?