LinkedIn Recommendation Request: 5 Scripts Before You Leave

Here's the short answer. The best time to ask for a LinkedIn recommendation is between your notice and your last day, while your work is still fresh in the other person's head. Send a short, specific message that names one or two things you worked on together and offers to draft a starter paragraph if that helps them. Ask five to eight people, not thirty.

You know the moment. You've handed in notice, the goodbye email is drafted, your calendar is starting to open up. Somewhere in the back of your mind is a soft voice reminding you that you meant to collect a few LinkedIn recommendations before you left, and you have not done it yet.

This is the right time. Not before you tell your manager, not on your last day when everyone is scrambling, and not three months after you leave when they've moved on to a new quarter and mostly remember you as the person who left. The window that actually works is the middle of your notice period, when people still have your work in view and a small amount of guilt about not doing more before you go.

This is what most people get wrong: they either wait until it feels awkward, or they blast out fifteen identical requests in one afternoon. Neither gets you what you want, which is a small number of genuinely specific recommendations from people whose voice will actually help you in your next search.

Who to ask (and who to skip)

Before you write a single message, spend twenty minutes on your calendar. Not your Slack, not your email — your calendar. Recurring meetings, one-on-ones, project reviews, off-sites. The calendar is the most honest record of who you actually worked with over the past twelve to twenty-four months. If you want a fuller version of this exercise, we walk through it in 7 Colleagues to Text (Not Email) Before You Leave a Job.

Aim for a list of five to eight names. That is the range where the requests still feel personal and the resulting recommendations still sound different from each other. Any more and you start writing form letters. Any fewer and your profile ends up with three recommendations that all sound like they came from the same person.

The people worth asking usually fall into four buckets:

• Your current or most recent manager, if the relationship is warm. A recommendation from the person who signed your reviews is heavier than anything else on your profile.
• One or two close peers who saw your day-to-day work up close. Not just people you liked — people who could describe how you actually operated.
• A cross-functional partner from another team. A recommendation from someone in a different function reads as more objective to future hiring managers, because they had no reason to be nice.
• A direct report, if you managed people. One recommendation from someone you led is worth three from people at your level.

Skip anyone you have not spoken to in the last twelve months, anyone senior who does not really know your work, and anyone you never quite got along with. A tepid recommendation is worse than no recommendation — it stays on your profile forever.

When to send it

The sweet spot is roughly the second week of your notice period. You've moved past the emotional first-few-days of the announcement, everyone has adjusted, and you still have real workdays left together so the ask feels natural.

Do not send it in the first 48 hours after you announce. People are still processing. Do not send it on your last day — you'll be busy, they'll be busy, and it lands as an afterthought. And do not wait a month after you leave, when you'll be a name in an old Slack channel and they'll be underwater with a new quarter.

If you're on a longer notice period, or on gardening leave, send it in the last two weeks before your access is cut, not after.

The pivot: know exactly who to ask

Here's the part most articles skip. Before you write these scripts, you need the actual list. Not a rough count. Not "I'll figure it out on the day." A short, real list of five to eight names, prioritized by who is most likely to write something specific and useful.

The calendar exercise above is the manual version. If you'd rather have it done for you in three minutes — with the quiet people your memory drops surfaced automatically — that's what we built the tool for.

The 5 scripts

These are meant to be starting points, not copy-paste templates. Change the specifics, keep the shape. Every one of them names something concrete you worked on together, gives the other person an easy out, and offers to make their life simpler by drafting a starter paragraph.

1. To your current or most recent manager

Subject: A small ask before I go

Hi [Name],

Before my last day on [date], I wanted to ask if you'd be open to writing a short LinkedIn recommendation for me. Working with you on [specific project or initiative] taught me a lot, especially [one concrete thing]. If it helps, I'm happy to draft a starting paragraph you can edit or throw out — whatever's easiest.

Totally understand if it isn't the right timing. Either way, thank you for the last [duration].

2. To a close peer

Subject: Quick LinkedIn ask

Hey [Name],

I'm putting my LinkedIn in shape before I leave, and you're one of the few people who actually saw how [specific project] came together. Would you be up for writing a short recommendation? Anything from three sentences to a paragraph is more than enough. I can send you a rough draft if that speeds things up.

No pressure at all. Miss working with you already.

3. To a cross-functional partner

Subject: A small LinkedIn favor

Hi [Name],

You're one of the people I most enjoyed working with across teams over the last [duration] — especially on [specific example]. Before I move on, I'd love to ask if you'd write a short LinkedIn recommendation for me. Even a few sentences from someone outside my team means a lot in a job search.

If it helps, I can send a draft. And if the timing isn't right, no worries at all.

4. To a direct report

Subject: Before I go

Hi [Name],

Before Friday, I wanted to ask if you'd be open to writing a short LinkedIn recommendation for me — from your perspective as someone I got to work with as your manager. I know it's a slightly unusual ask from a former boss, and I completely understand if you'd rather not, or want to wait until after I'm gone.

If you do want to, three or four sentences on what it was actually like to work with me is exactly the kind of thing that helps. I'll send a note when the LinkedIn request lands so it doesn't get lost.

5. To a client or external partner

Subject: A small ask on my way out

Hi [Name],

I'm leaving [Company] at the end of this month, and before I go I wanted to ask if you'd write a short LinkedIn recommendation. Working with you on [specific engagement] was one of the highlights of my time here, and a recommendation from a client always carries more weight than anything internal.

Happy to draft a starting version if that's easier — just let me know.

What to include in your draft (if you offer one)

Offering a starter paragraph is not lazy on their end. It's a real gift. Most people want to help but freeze at the blank page. If you send them something to react to, the odds they follow through go up sharply.

A good starter paragraph does three things: it says how you know each other, it names one concrete thing you did well, and it closes with a single line the writer can use as-is or replace. Keep it under 120 words. If it reads too polished, they will not touch it and you'll end up with a recommendation that sounds like you wrote it yourself.

What to do after you leave

Once you're out, keep a light touch. If someone said yes and hasn't posted after two weeks, send one gentle nudge from your personal email. If they still don't, let it go — a chased recommendation reads as chased, even to strangers.

Also, don't update your LinkedIn to the new company until at least a few of these recommendations have landed. Recommendations posted after your title changes read as slightly awkward, because the writer is technically speaking about a role you no longer hold. If you want a fuller take on the timing, see When to Update Your LinkedIn After Starting a New Job.

And keep the personal contact details of anyone who wrote you one. That's a two-way relationship now, not a work contact you inherited. If you need a hand exporting those details cleanly before your access is cut, we cover the steps in How to Save Your Work Contacts Before You Leave a Job.

One more thing

The scripts above will get you replies. Whether you actually get useful recommendations comes down to who you send them to, and that comes down to whether you know who mattered. Most people don't, at the moment they're leaving — the calendar knows, but memory does not. Build the list first. The message writes itself once the list is right. Start with your farewell list and work backwards from there.