Why LinkedIn endorsements are driving me nuts

Anyone with a LinkedIn account will have noticed a new feature where you are encouraged to endorse the skills of your connections.

You can read all about endorsements on the LinkedIn blog here.

The prompt comes when you view someone's profile. A list of some of their skills appears right in your face at the top of the page. When you click on the skill it sends a note to the person saying 'David has endorsed you for the following skills and expertise:...'.

In theory this is great, as there is nothing stronger than an unsolicited pat on the back.

So why am I being driven nuts by this?

Because being a conscientious LinkedIn user I have made sure all my skills are listed on my profile. You are allowed up to 50 skills and I have listed 27. But LinkedIn is only asking people to endorse some of them, and they are not the most relevant.

Not only that. My profile now lists my skills in order of endorsements not relevance, which simply perpetuates the problem.

I know this sounds churlish, and I'm really grateful to those of you who have endorsed my broadcasting skills. The problem is that I now run a training business.

Here's a screengrab from my profile that illustrates the issue:

  

The fact that I have a media and broadcasting hinterland is very important to me, and I do some training in broadcasting skills. But my training business focusses mostly on networking, communications and basic business skills, which is not the same thing.

Bizarrely, people who only know me from my training work are being prompted to endorse me in broadcasting skills. I'm delighted if they've enjoyed one of our workshops, but for all they know I might be a rubbish broadcaster.

This rather devalues the whole process.

So here's a plea to the clever people at LinkedIn. Please let me prioritise the skills that are most current. Then if anyone wants to endorse me, they will be prompted with those first.

Now that I've got that off my chest, I'm off to do some proper (training) work.

Comments

[Nick Nugent]

Sounds good, power to your elbow, David. I had wondered about all those endorsements. You obviously use Linked-In more than I do, or else are more adept at using it to promote your business. I support what you say - if you can bring about that change, i.e. individual members rather than IT experts or their software retain control. Nick (currently training in India).