There’s a timely Brainyard discussion taking place on the value of LinkedIn’s recently added endorsements feature. The broad consensus of the blog writer and commenters is that endorsements aren’t particularly helpful or meaningful.
It’s hard to escape LinkedIn’s efforts to push the new endorsements feature. But that’s precisely the problem: the process requires nothing more than the click of a button, ensuring some number of endorsements have little more value than a Facebook “friend” you’ve never met or interacted with. It’s unlikely all endorsements are driven by actual experience with, and professional knowledge about, the person being endorsed.
You can only give a meaningful endorsement for someone – coworker, business partner, client – when you’ve worked with them directly and you have the confidence to vouch for their skills and expertise. LinkedIn’s approach has dumbed down the endorsement significantly. I recently came across one LinkedIn profile with over 2,500 endorsements, a number that seems somewhat implausible in terms of truly substantive feedback.
There’s a definite quid-pro-quo trait to this process, and now wonder if I was selective and thoughtful enough at the time I was getting so many prompts. I appreciate the endorsements I have but, at the same time, a few of them are from people I haven’t interacted with in the last 3-5 years, endorsing me for work that they’ve never had any direct exposure to. Thanks, I think.
I encourage you to weigh in on this important social media/career topic at the Brainyard, and to give serious thought to the weight of your next LinkedIn endorsement.
I agree completely.
I agree completely. I made a similar post on my LinkedIn feed and got some great responses where I learned that you can delete endorsements that you receive. My thoughts are that if I delete ones that are meaningless – the ones that have value will stand out (e.g. from the local CIO that I am working with, or the industry thought leader, customers, etc.).
Obviously, LinkedIn is trying to increase the valuable data available on each member, however they have made it too easy to have 2,500+ endorsements thus decreasing any value that they hold.
In my view, written Recomendations are the best – however it is hard for LinkedIn and their paying customers (e.g. recruiters, sales, etc.) to easily search and parse that data.
I hope everyone will consider deleting Endorsements like I did!
thanks for feedback Joel. I see one person on social media listing their multi-thousand LinkedIn Connections and casting the net for more. how many quality business relationships can someone manage?
I don’t trust the new feature very much. Also agree that endorsements aren’t particularly helpful or meaningful.
I disagree with part of that. I have some endorsements that I did not ask for, but these are from people who know me and my skill set. If one is an accountant, and someone you have worked with knows that you are, then the endorsement is a good thing. It’s hard to get a reference in today’s business climate due to company concerns over privacy.
I think the new feature is a nice idea but the reality is pretty useless.
there are two folks who are endorsing me for new skills every time I log on and I know them both as friendly acquaintances, not true business contacts. These endorsements carry no weight and knowing that is happening with my account (even though I haven’t accepted these endorsements) means I don’t really consider them valuable on other peoples pages.
It’s such a coincidence to come across this article, when earlier this afternoon I was thinking the same thing and figured it was only a matter of time before someone spoke up about it.
I received an endorsement from someone I didn’t even know, and it made me wonder how these endorsements will ever carry any weight when like you said, it can be applied with just a click of a button!
I decided I would not accept the new, unknown endorsements for fear a future employer would ask me about my experience working with said person. It seems like this new feature is just something to add bulk to the profile. Unfortunately, it’s just not very meaningful bulk.
IMO endorsements should be restricted to those connections who worked at previous companies as person for whom endorsement is for. At least there those endorsements won’t stretch truth. I don’t believe endorsements are as valuable as recommendations. Agree with other opinions above.
I’ve been searching for work for quite a while and have been told by a number of people that if I am not on LinkedIn, many recruiters and employers will automatically pass me over, pretty much without regard for anything that’s on my resume. So I created a profile and found former co-workers I haven’t seen in 10 years endorsing skills I’ve acquired only in the last 5 years. I have resigned myself to the idea that LinkedIn is very much like shoveling snow off my driveway in a later April storm: nothing but an absolutely necessary waste of my time.
Basically it’s useless clutter — the sole point is to increase people’s “interaction” with the site (apparently people haven’t been returning all that frequently — which, let’s face it, since LinkedIn is basically a combination of “resume” + “contact list”; after an initial burst of activity, most users are unlikely to be logging in with bated breath on a daily basis, unless something has or is about to change in their employment status).
Also, REAL endorsements are the written “Recommendation” texts, which serve as mini-reference letters.
If someone is incapable/unwilling to write something of substance in that format (which in my experience few people do or let’s face it, are even capable of doing) then their “endorsement” probably isn’t worth much.
So the value of the whole “checkbox” thing so trivial it’s ridiculous/inane.
I agree a bit and disagree more. There are many of us who work hard and earn the respect of our peers and subordinates and have skills far more reaching than our titles may indicate and I believe having skills endorsed by many shows one’s competentcies are legitimate not just fiction.
On the other hand, first and foremost the fraudulent resumes and the endorsement of skills people do not even have is appalling to me. I see people list skills they never even touched on in their lives and it actually is offputting to see them represent themseleves falsely. I believe this discredits the entire process and it does lend to some validity of the argument as to their usefulness as the author notes.
I believe none of it matters anyway. The hiring process has become so much more political and alumni (did you used to work together) oriented rather than about the most qualified and skilled being hired.
Companies are flailing as the trend continues. Not all companies do this but the reference checks and the endorsements should weigh far more than a former supervisor’s opinion in my eyes. The peers and subordinates are the true measure of one’s impact. The Supervisor may be threatened or even have been displaced due to the performance of the subordinate but these things I am certain are never discovered in the reference check.
There simply needs to be a better process. I personally do not write endorsements for just anyone. Only the best! Sorry for the long winded answer, but I have been affected by the politics personally and believe firmly if you have multiple endirsements, their legitimacy is more likely.
I disagree with most of the commenters. If interpreted properly, endorsements can be very useful as a quick indicator of a person’s skill set as viewed by a large population.
Endorsements are not like recommendations and shouldn’t be used that way. Recommendations on LinkedIn are more like long-form reference letters.
But endorsements provide a different strength, a much larger population of endorsers. The strength of endorsements is in the wisdom of crowds, which relies on large populations and frictionless participation. I wrote about endorsements and the wisdom of crowds here: http://tracyearles.blogspot.com/2013/02/are-linkedin-endorsements-meaningless.html.
Tracy
I thought the new “endorsement” feature on LinkedIn was suspect the first time I saw one on my page. This was only reinforced with the host of others that followed from individuals who didn’t know me well enough to have possibly vouched for my skills. I think it is a feature that might as well be deleted. Save the space for something more substantive.
I’ll bet this is why Linkedin advised from the start to only connect with those you know and who know you.