LinkedIn has turned self-promotion into an industry with its "endorsements." If you're a LinkedIn member, you've probably seen these. A message appears in your inbox telling you that one of the people in your network has endorsed you for a certain skill. That is pleasant and affirming, but potentially misleading as well. These endorsements have the same reputability as a certain online encyclopedia compiled and maintained by the community-at-large.
I enjoy recognition as much as the next person. The part of this process I dislike is that I have little control over the endorsements I receive, which of my skills is being endorsed, or the authority of the person doing the endorsing. I've not looked deeply into the LinkedIn mechanism for endorsements, but if what I saw over my wife's shoulder is anything to judge by, one is presented with several pictures, each a person from one's network, and a word or two. Does Jan know about Corporate Law? Does Samuel know about Botany? Does David know about Accounting?
All well and good, but here's the trap. Suppose Accounting appears in my resume simply because I performed that function in a limited capacity several jobs ago and I dared not show a gap in employment? And now, my close personal friend whom I know only in passing because we ate in the same dining facility at yet another job, has endorsed me for my capacity to work with numbers. I understand. They were simply trying to be helpful, but do they realize that they may have consigned me to a small, stifling corner of Hell? I begin receiving notifications of employment opportunities spending my day with numbers. Jobs where I would look wistfully across the office at the copywriters and editors, aching to describe something or even to document a process. But then, it is back to columns and rows, rows and columns.
The die is cast. Around the world, people are boredly staring at their monitors, bunching one cheek into a contorted caricature of themselves with an arm and a palm for support as their glazed eyes consider the rogue's gallery of contacts being paraded before them. And they are clicking. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. No. It's like a poor person's version of a slot machine, but the payout is an email informing the person behind the photograph that they have been honored by yet another endorsement with little or no basis.
I ask only this. If you're a LinkedIn member, resist. Don't go for the easy click and the illusion that you've thoughtfully considered their aptitude, and that you approve. Save your unreserved support of somebody's capability for that select group of people whom you've seen in action. Repeatedly. The people you'd not hesitate to tap if you were forming a team. The people that you know you'd be proud to stand behind at any time because they have not only talent, but character. Every endorsement carries a little bit of you, too. Make it count.
