As a marketing recruiter, increasingly I am seeing resumes in Word format that contain testimonials about the candidate at the end of the document. Great idea....
The most effective testimonials have live links to the Linked-in profiles of those people providing the endorsements.
These same testimonials are also embedded into the candidate's Linked-in profile. For example, the following testimonials were scraped from a resume this morning (dummy links to Linked-in provided in bold for illustration purposes)...
Kudos
"Mary Zelnick consulted for our company as the Online Merchandising Manager. The skill set and vision she brought to the project from both a business and a technical perspective was outstanding. I would highly recommend her as a consultant or an employee for any company and would very much enjoy working with her again." (July 7, 2005) Jeffrey Wright, managed Mary at Target.com
"Having worked several years for Mary Zelnick at Walmart.com, I highly recommend and endorse her online merchandising skills. Mary combines solid hands-on experience with sound leadership and coaching abilities - a powerful combination that fosters a productive, enthusiastic, and cohesive team. Communication and integrity are strengths of Mary, and she is constantly striving for optimal solutions." (June 30, 2006) Don Dimagela, reported to Mary at Walmart.com
"I had a great opportunity when I was working at Synergis: To work with Mary Zelnick. Most of what I learned while at Synergis, I learned from her. Her technical skills, her ultimate customer focus and her great abilities as a manager, total commitment to success. I highly recommend Mary as a very valuable, reliable and trusted advisor in any project or endeavor." (June 26, 2006) Arthur Velingo, Sr. Consultant, Sybase Inc worked indirectly for Mary at Synergis
By now most HR and marketing professionals know that Linked-in testimonials are impossible to manipulate. All a user can do with an average testimonial is not add it to their profile -- they cannot change it. That lends an air of authenticity to Linked-in testimonials, which I love.
If you are not a Linked-in user, what are you waiting for? Sign up today! And if you are a Linked-in user, get some testimonials and add them to your resume. Ideally, you should have testimonials for each job you have held.
Linked-in testimonials will legitimize your claims of functional expertise, and they will help a hiring manager understand exactly where and how and when you have created value in the past.
