LinkedIn has become an invaluable tool for networking and showcasing your professional profile. With over 600 million users, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network and continues to grow in popularity for recruiting, marketing, and staying connected to your industry.
One of the best features of LinkedIn is the ability to get recommendations from past managers, colleagues, clients, and others you’ve worked with. These recommendations validate your skills, experience, and work ethic. They provide outside proof of your capabilities beyond just what you say about yourself.
Having several recommendations attached to your profile makes you look good to potential employers and business contacts browsing LinkedIn. It shows you have a proven track record and have left past employers and clients satisfied with your work. So recommendations are something you definitely want to showcase.
But what if you need a hard copy of your profile with the recommendations included? Maybe you want to include it as part of a job application or just have an easy way to show offline what people are saying about you online. The good news is there are a couple quick and easy ways to print out your profile along with the recommendations others have written for you.
Option 1: Use LinkedIn’s Profile PDF Export
The easiest way to print out your LinkedIn profile with recommendations is to use LinkedIn’s own built-in PDF export tool. Here’s how:
- Go to your LinkedIn profile page
- Click on the “More” dropdown menu in the top right
- Select “Save to PDF”
- On the pop-up window, check the box for “Include recommendations”
- Click the blue “Save” button
This will automatically generate a PDF file of your profile that includes the recommendations section. You can then print the PDF just like any other document.
One thing to note is that by default, the PDF only includes your most recent 10 recommendations. If you want to print all your recommendations, follow these steps instead:
- Go to your profile’s Recommendations section
- Click the “Show more” link until all are expanded
- Then follow steps 1-5 above
This ensures the PDF will contain your full recommendations history, no matter how many you have.
Option 2: Use a PDF Printer
Another way is to use a PDF printer tool to save your profile as a PDF. Here’s how:
- Install a free PDF printer like PrimoPDF
- Go to your LinkedIn profile page
- Click File > Print (or use keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD + P)
- Select your installed PDF printer as the target printer
- Click Print. A PDF file will be generated.
This PDF method may take a bit more time as you have to manually expand each recommendation to print them all. But it gives you more flexibility like adding custom headers/footers or appending multiple pages into one PDF.
Customize Your Printed Profile
Once you’ve generated a PDF of your profile, consider these tips for customizing it before printing:
- Only include relevant sections – Delete introduction texts from sections irrelevant to a specific purpose. For a job application, Education and Skills may be more valued than Volunteer Experience or Projects.
- Expand key sections – Be sure to click “Show more” within sections like Experience and Recommendations to showcase these fully.
- Add contact info – Insert your phone number, email address, and links near the top for easy access.
- Update headers/footers – Add page numbers, date, custom headers to make it look more professional.
Recommendation Etiquette
Before asking connections for recommendations, keep these etiquette tips in mind:
- Only ask people who know your work well and can speak positively about you. Avoid asking strangers just to build up numbers.
- Personalize each request rather than spamming your whole network.
- Provide some background on the opportunity you’re seeking and how their recommendation would help.
- Send them a current copy of your resume/bio to remind them of your qualifications and time working together.
Also, offer to return the favor by providing recommendations for them on LinkedIn. Relationships are a two-way street.
Who to Ask for Recommendations
Aim to get recommendations from 4-5 connections from various roles for a well-rounded profile. Good people to ask include:
- Current or past managers who supervised your work
- Colleagues at your own level who directly collaborated with you
- Former employees you managed or mentored
- Long-time clients or customers familiar with your work
- College professors who instructed and advised you
- Influential people in your industry like authors or association leaders
Tips by Relationship Type
Tailor your outreach depending on the type of relationship:
Connection Type | Recommendation Tips |
Manager | – Focus on skills, achievements, and impact during your time reporting to them |
Coworker | – Emphasize teamwork, collaboration, and peer-to-peer skills |
Direct report | – Ask them to speak to your management abilities and mentorship |
Client | – Talk about work you did for them, customer service skills, and value you added |
Professor | – Mention academic achievements, projects, leadership roles, and their mentorship |
Industry leader | – Make it clear why their endorsement would be influential for your goals |
The more customized the recommendation, the better. Avoid generic language that could apply to anyone.
Managing Your Recommendations
Here are some tips for managing your recommendations over time:
- Send friendly reminders if you notice connections haven’t returned promised recommendations.
- Read recommendations before publishing them to your profile. It’s acceptable to request changes if something seems unfair or misleading.
- Occasionally renew older recommendations rather than just accumulating old ones. This keeps them fresh and up-to-date.
- Hide recommendations that no longer seem relevant to your personal branding or that contain unprofessional language.
- Manage recommendations just like other social content. Curate them for the audience you want to reach right now.
Turning Contacts Into Recommendations
Not everyone you connect with on LinkedIn will turn into a recommendation. To increase your chances, use these strategies:
- Connect personally through events, conversations, and engaging with their content before requesting a recommendation.
- Offer to provide them with a recommendation first to highlight the value of the feature.
- Follow up a successful project or interaction with a customized recommendation ask.
- Don’t take it personally if they decline or don’t respond. Move on to other potential advocates.
- Consider if they might be more receptive later in your relationship or career. Timing matters.
Alternatives to LinkedIn Recommendations
While LinkedIn recommendations are ideal, they aren’t the only type of third-party endorsement. Other options include:
- Written Letters of Recommendation – Get a PDF version you can include with your printed profile.
- Video Testimonials – Record colleagues praising your work and link to the video.
- Excerpts from Performance Reviews – Quoting positive feedback from managers can work too.
- References – Listing people’s contact info who will vouch for you upon request.
- Quotes – Pulling flattering extracts from emails and messages.
The key is showing your capabilities through the eyes of others, not just self-promotion. Any method that achieves that is worth considering if traditional LinkedIn recommendations aren’t possible.
Conclusion
Getting recommendations makes your LinkedIn profile stand out and adds immense credibility. But they only have impact if people actually see them.
By printing out your profile with recommendations, you take these social validations off the screen and put them directly in front of audiences. You can provide powerful third-party proof of your qualifications wherever a physical copy of your profile would be helpful.
Use LinkedIn’s own PDF export tools or a virtual PDF printer to easily save your full recommendations list. Then clean up the file, customize it for your needs, and print away. The more recommendations you’ve accumulated, the greater the impression your printed profile can make.