LinkedIn skills endorsements adds buzz but not much value

I now view other users’ profiles with some skepticism and wonder whether they really possess those skills or not.

I’ve been a LinkedIn user for about eight years, and I’m highly appreciative of its business networking focus. LinkedIn has facilitate many fruitful business opportunities that might not have happened otherwise.

LinkedIn has been adding new features, and one of the newest is the Skills feature. A while after adding Skills, LinkedIn now provides a means for users to “endorse” the skills of their connections. Upon first glance, I thought this would be a useful feature that would help to add credibility to one’s claims of business and technical skills.  That is, until I started receiving endorsements from some of the people I am connected with.

I’m grateful to my connections for endorsing my skills – make no mistake about it. However, I’ve received many skills endorsements from connections that do not actually know whether I have those skills or not. While their endorsements seem to strengthen my credibility, I now view other users’ profiles with some skepticism and wonder whether they really possess those skills or not. If people are endorsing my skills without actually knowing whether I have them, how do I know whether others have the skills they claim, even when endorsed?

LinkedIn is just another tool that people can use to embellish their resumes. While LinkedIn has great potential for helping people find each other based on their profession, location, skills, and other criteria, LinkedIn is no substitute for other methods for determining whether businesspeople actually possess the skills they claim.

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