So you’ve got Linkedin like [me](nl.linkedin.com/in/tvdsluijs "my linkedin page")? Great! Let’s connect! No really! Let’s connect! And please endorse me! yes tell people how good I am at certain skills!

Ever had this conversation? No? Me neither but it happens every day! (even without the conversation!)

So I have a linkedin account for over several years now. Most of the time it helped me by being selected for a new job or when I am selecting people (or finding people) for a new job.

One time it actually helped me to get a new job. If you don’t know Linkedin (have we been living underneath a stone?) it’s a business like facebook but less social (you don’t have to put your whole live on linkedin).

It’s more like your online resume and contact portal to colleagues, clients and/or business relationships.

So when I left a company in the passed, I always would ask some of my (former) colleagues to write a endorsement. Off course I could give them some money and tell them to make it a good endorsement, but I rather like real endorsements.

Since the new layout (well just before the new layout) that Linkedin presented there was something new! Skill endorsements! A connection can give your a Skill endorsement. It just pops-up above your profile (when the counter connected party is looking at your profile) and it shows some of your skills. The person can than just click on it and “voila” your are endorsed for that skill.

Now you can still ask contact to endorse you with a nice story, but I guess a lot of people did not know what to write. So Linkedin came up with this very easy way to endorse.

There is only one big problem. You cannot select the people anymore to let endorse you for those skills. So everybody that is a connection can just….. endorse you.

Every month I get a few requests from people who want to connect with me. Some I’ll connect with, and with some I don’t. Now, some of these new connected people, some people I barely know, go just ahead and endorse me right away for some of my skills.

Do you understand where I’m going? People I that I have never met, did not speak to or ever worked with, just endorse me.

So do these people look and my profile and think? “Yes he’s good at SCRUM!” No!!!! They don’t know that! They just endorse me because Linkedin let’s them, and because its so easy!

To! Easy!

So as you understand, when I see a lot of endorsements on someones Linkedin profile, I think…. is he that good? Or is Linkedin becoming a Sham?

Tell me what you think!