LinkedIn endorsements

In September 2012, LinkedIn introduced Endorsements. Once you add Skills to your profile, your first-level contacts can endorse you for those skills by clicking an icon.

The rough equivalent of Facebook’s “Like” and the Google + “+1” in ease of use, endorsements make it easy to “recommend” a contact. Yet if you regularly welcome people into your network who you don’t know well, you can expect some of these acquaintances to endorse you for skills even when you suspect they don’t know enough about your abilities to make the endorsement sincere. This fact makes certain people skeptical about the usefulness of endorsements.

Over time, endorsements may gain universal acceptance. Meanwhile, make the most of them:

• Review the contacts who endorse you (LinkedIn emails you whenever you get an endorsement)
• Consider asking endorsers for recommendations as well, should they be in a position to recommend you.

Endorse a contact

If you have worked with people whose skills you admire, endorse them by following these steps:

1. After signing on to LinkedIn, go to that person’s profile.
2. Scroll down to the Skills & Expertise section.
3. Find a skill you want to endorse and click the plus sign to the right of the skill label.

Hiding endorsements

You can’t delete endorsements, but if you would rather a specific endorsement not appear in your profile, follow these steps.

1. After signing on to LinkedIn, go to the Profile menu and choose Edit Profile.
2. Scroll down to the Skills & Expertise section.
3. Click the pencil icon.
4. Click the Manage Endorsements link.
5. Click the skill that contains the endorsement you want to hide.
6. Find the endorsement in the list that appears and remove its check mark.
7. Click Save. The endorsement no longer appears in your profile.