To Endorse or Not to Endorse?

Many of our new grad students are in the midst of creating and populating their LinkedIn profiles. When it comes to the Skills section, you can hear them thinking "Hey! Why don't we all endorse all of each other's skills?". Not a good idea.

Endorsements are a great way to publicly assert an individual excels at a particular skill. I am always touched and honored when someone takes the time (I know it's only 1 click...) to endorse a skill after meeting me.

And therein lies the first caveat - your name and face are attached to the endorsee and that particular skill. If I notice a friend has endorsed a skill for someone of interest, I would call my friend and ask them about it. I'd like to hear how they came to experience this person's skills. I would expect to hear about a specific situation that left my friend impressed.

I very much encourage students to endorse each other as they experience excellence from their classmates. If you've just heard a great presentation, or a member of a class project team performed dazzling analytics or wrote an insightful report - endorse those skills!

Don't endorse if you can't have the conversation. You're not doing your friend or yourself any favors by going down the list and endorsing every skill.

The second caveat is more of a heads-up. LinkedIn keeps tabs on your skills and endorsements. They play a part in your ranking on Linkedin Recruiter. For example, let's imagine a recruiter is seeking a certain skill which is present in two profiles. One profile has a couple, but the second profile has many endorsements on that skill. The second profile will be shown first in search results.

 Endorsements say a lot about the giver as well as the receiver.

As with everything else in LinkedIn, remember this is a professional platform. Giving endorsements is an indicator of your high standards and willingness to recognize and stand behind excellence. Use wisely!