I remember the first couple of times I got an endorsement on Linkedin. The new kind of endorsement where you just have to check a box easy-peasy and you don’t have to give any great thought to being a perceived hero in someone’s life. I was flattered. “Oh, thank you!”, I tweeted to the person who did the grand and glorious act of kindness and insight.

At that time, I wasn’t very familiar with Linkedin and didn’t realized they had changed things to make this a pretty easy process that doesn’t require much time.

Now, though, it’s a different story. I’m always stumped when people I don’t know, but with whom I’ve connected  on Linkedin, endorse my skills. How do they know these things about me when I’ve never done business with them or, in fact, interacted with them at all past agreeing to connect with them?

If I add “Fire Eating” to my skills, how long do you think it will be before someone endorses me for that? Social media, marketing, fire eating. My skill level is all the same when you don’t know me, right? 😉

I am starting to think that people whom I don’t know have ulterior motives for endorsing me. i.e. They expect me to return the favor. Today, I received an inbox message from a guy who has been endorsing me the last couple of weeks asking me to do just that which confirms this. But I don’t know him!

I think these endorsements are so ridiculous and unimportant that after I read this article I just went in and shut them off. So, if you DO decide to endorse me for eating fire, sadly, my future employer (nor anyone else) will never see it.

I love the idea of the written endorsements offered at Linkedin. If I worked with someone and I knew their abilities and was incredibly impressed with them, it’s nice to know there is a spot there where I can write something to that effect and have it stand out on their profile. I believe that these endorsements have real value and if someone asked me or I felt compelled to write one, I would.

Until then, I’m going to go eat some fire.

To those of you whom I know that have endorsed me, I do appreciate and thank you. I just don’t put a lot of stock in Linkedin endorsements as you can see. 🙂