Dear candidate,
The way to get that foot in the door is certainly not by following a ‘one size fits all’ principle. It is important to do some personal research before implementing any suggestion you get online or even offline. For example; I was curious to understand why people whom I had no past working relationship or personal knowledge of would ask me to refer or recommend them directly to hiring managers for roles that they had applied to. The question for me really was and still is ‘on what basis’ would this recommendation or referral stand on.
However, from reading some recommendations to job applicants on Linkedin, I have realised that this appears pretty standard in some places.
The irony here is that this has the potential to either open or slam the door (depending on the door in question). This also applies to how you should or should not structure your resume, whether it is important to attach a cover letter or not, what to say or not say in an interview, whether to use the ‘I’ did this (focusing on your individual contribution) or to use the ‘we’ achieved xyz (with more emphasis on what you achieved as a team) and so on (the list is endless). Bottom line: Some recommendations are only relevant to the market and the peculiar experience of the writer.
The burden of choosing what to run with lies with you.
God’s speed!