Writing Recommendations Early

As I mentioned recently, I’m leaving my job at Open Earth Foundation to focus full time on the Social Web at SWF. One of the steps that I took before I left was writing out LinkedIn recommendations for everyone in my tech department at OEF, and many of my peers and others in the organisation. Too often, I’ve been asked for recommendations by former colleagues months or years after working with someone, and the intervening time makes it hard to remember their achievements and strengths. By writing the recommendations now, while my team’s work is still fresh in my mind, I hope I can provide more concrete and focused descriptions of their work style and skills. At the very least, if they ask for more detailed references or recommendations in the future, I’ll have public notes that I can use as a cheat sheet during reference check calls.