Today we tackle something uncomfortable, which is collecting testimonials and endorsements from people who have worked with you. Academics generally hate the thought of this, because we are trained to believe that good work speaks for itself. And if you are remaining securely ensconced in academia, to some degree it does. By which I mean, your published article in a major journal “speaks a thousand words” about who you are and what you do.

Think about it: inside academia, we are accustomed to a peculiar system of validation; someone writes a confidential letter, then a committee reads it and you may never see it. Your professional reputation circulates largely beyond your control. However, outside that system (and TBH increasingly within it especially at upper admin levels), you need visible evidence of your value, which is where a testimonial comes in. It is social proof which tells a prospective collaborator, employer, client, funder, organization, or audience: this person delivers, they are good to work with and their expertise produces results. All of that is substantially more persuasive than you announcing those things about yourself.

There is a big difference between you stating: “I am an experienced facilitator who helps interdisciplinary teams communicate effectively” and your former collaborator affirming: “her facilitation transformed a difficult interdisciplinary project. She identified the points where we were talking past one another and gave us a structure that allowed the team to make decisions.” The second statement tells us what you did, what problem existed, and what changed because you were there.

So especially when you are attempting to transition out of academia, or even, say, transition to administration within it, you need endorsements that can reassure skittish hiring managers that you can do what you claim to do.

For the purposes of this exercise, I’m going to suggest that you collect these in one place, create one document or spreadsheet called Testimonials, Endorsements, or Professional Proof, or the like. For every endorsement, record the quote, person’s name and title, organization, context in which you worked together, date received, permission granted, and where you have used it. This becomes a professional asset library, so that later, when someone asks for a speaker bio, consulting proposal, fellowship application, website update, or evidence of impact, you will not have to start from zero.

Then, I suggest that you take two or three – with permission – and feature them prominently on your personal website. It’s best if you can use named testimonials, but anonymous help too, as long as the person’s status and area is clear. Here is one academia-adjacent site I found at random (this is not an endorsement of the business, which I do not know) that includes extensive social proof of this kind, and goes a step further by including video testimonials. This is a very effective approach.

Make sure the testimonials are quickly visible, and not hidden on some page the reader has to dig for.

Secondly, as you go through this process, where you can, seek endorsements on LinkedIn. This is just a one-click function, where your endorser visits your profile, scrolls down to your “Skills,” and clicks “endorse.” There is no substantive content, but it’s effective nevertheless. As you approach people below, remember to request the LinkedIn followup as well.

OK, so how to do it? The goal is to collect testimonials and endorsements from people who have worked with you: collaborators, co-organizers, project partners, editors, clients, community partners, former supervisors, workshop hosts, and others. Anyone who can say, concretely, what you contributed and why it mattered.

In order to collect them, you are going to have to ask.

Your task this week is to identify five to ten people who have firsthand knowledge of your work. Do not limit yourself to senior or prestigious people. Prestige can be useful, but specificity is more useful. Also remember: prestige is highly situational. The most famous scholar of Middle English in the world likely carries zero prestige for hiring managers in the corporate sphere. So you’re looking for people who can articulate concretely what you did, how you did it, and how it benefited them. The famous professor who can say, “She is an excellent scholar,” is often less valuable than the project director who says “She redesigned our research workflow, coordinated six contributors across three institutions, and got a stalled project moving again.”

So first, look across your professional history and ask  – who has seen you lead a project, solve a difficult problem, organize people or information, teach or facilitate, communicate complicated ideas clearly, meet a difficult deadline, manage a collaboration, edit or improve someone’s work, build a program, event, resource, or system, bring specialized knowledge to a team, make something measurably better? These are the people you need to approach.

Do not ask for “a recommendation” however! That is academia language, and it is inaccurate, and also self-defeating. This is because a “recommendation”, in academia, is a really big task!  It’s probably 2 pages, single spaced, and requires deep knowledge and great detail. That’s not what we are going for here. You want the request to be small and specific, the goal is for two or three sentences.

First, tell the person where you might use the testimonial: your website, LinkedIn profile, consulting materials, speaker page, portfolio, grant materials, or professional bio, and then give them guidance.

For example:

I’m updating my professional materials and collecting a few short testimonials from people I’ve collaborated with. Would you be willing to write two or three sentences about our work together? Particularly what I contributed to the project and what you found valuable about working with me? With your permission, I’d use the quote on my website and related professional materials.

Make the request straight-forward and manageable. Also remember that people are busy, so remind them what you worked on together.

For example:

We worked together on the X initiative, where I developed the workshop series and coordinated the faculty/community partnership. If useful, you might comment on the facilitation, project design, or outcomes.

Because your person might not be familiar with this process, you may need to tell them, quite explicitly, the kind of thing you need. Clarify for them that generic praise that is common within academia (ie, “Brilliant scholar and wonderful colleague”) is ineffective in your new context. Explain that you need specificity that demonstrates particular dimensions of your professional value.

Some people will tell you, “Absolutely—just draft something and send it to me.” You could get precious about this, but don’t, just draft it. You are giving a busy person language they can approve, reject, or modify.

Write something accurate and specific:

“Alex brought an unusual combination of subject expertise and project management to our initiative. They translated a complex research agenda into a clear program for our external partners and kept a multi-institutional team moving toward concrete deadlines.”

Then send it with:

Here’s a possible draft based on our work together. Please change anything you’d like—or feel completely free not to use it if it doesn’t reflect your experience.

They retain control over the endorsement and you have simply removed the blank-page problem.

You want a range of voices:

someone who can tell us that you can translate complex research for non-specialists

someone who can establish that you can manage complicated collaborative projects

someone who can describe your teaching,

someone who can speak to your strategic thinking

someone who shows you understand a particular industry, methodology, population, technology, archive, or problem.

Taken together, these testimonials begin constructing a professional identity.

For this reason, beware of collecting five versions of the same compliment.

Do not assume that because someone emailed you something flattering, you can put it on your website. You need to ask and confirm the wording they approve, whether you may publish it and how they want to be identified. Some people will prefer a shorter identification. Some may want their organization omitted. Some may insist on anonymity. You must respect their terms and retain the approval in writing.

It’s still common for academics to wait to be recognized, assuming that others will notice their contributions, articulate their value, and put that information in front of the right people. This is a poor plan even in academia; outside it, it’s positively treacherous. You need a professional strategy, not just to do good work, but to make the value of that work legible. Testimonials are the evidence you need.

So this week, identify 5–10 potential endorsers. Contact at least five, asking for 2–3 sentences focused on your contribution and its impact. Obtain explicit permission to use each quotation. Store the approved endorsements in one searchable testimonial bank. (Also mention the LinkedIn endorsement option and see if they will do it.) And then mobilize some of the testimonials on your personal website, or wherever you can.