Endorse this.....

gtvlusso

Linked in endorsements and plaudits...Anyone else sick of them?

I have been endorsed by people that I have not worked with or seen for ~10 years. WTF? :shock: I have also been endorsed by people that I am not connected with...mostly recruiters looking for a way in.

As a result of these endorsements, I have read a few ex-colleagues profiles and have never read such utter cock and bull in my life. I mean absolute bullsh*t!

My use of Linked in is really a cloud store of working contacts and details about my current employment only. I do not endorse and I do not write references on linked in. If someone wishes me to reference them; I will follow due company process where appropriate or for personal references, I will be entirely professional in my approach and keep the details private.

I have read the profile of an ex manager of my team, who was probably retarded; certainly had a low i.q. When I worked with him, his nickname was Blockhead or Touchdown (the nickname; 'Touchdown', was because he thought that scoring a 'try' in Rugby was called a 'touchdown'). The guy just did not get it and was pretty much fired in the end for being ineffective. The rubbish that he has constructed about his career is pure fantasy. He has allot of endorsements and references, but all from former military mates and people that never 'actually' worked with him. He has obviously written glowing references in return for his own references to all his mates. If you were to read the profile without knowing the guy, it would make him out to be a god of management and a potential CxO......staggering!

notsoblue

I doubt any recruiter worth their salt would judge a potential candidate purely by their endorsements.

Also anyone who writes bullsh*t endorsements for people will surely realise eventually that if they endorse people who consistently turn out to be poor candidates, then it will reflect very badly on them?

LinkedIn is like any social network really. You experience of it is determined by the social connections you make within it. It goes a bit further than Facebook actually, as you're probably going to be judged by the connections you make on there too.

gbsahne001

One of the most bizarre thing I've found with linked in is the number of people claiming to have worked for my rather small design / management company. It consists of me and my partner and sometimes a few freelancer's if I'm snowed under.

Yet before I deleted the company profile, I had around 800 people either claiming to have worked or still working for me and Linked in doesn't provide any means of booting them out or having them ejected by Linked In.

I've even had people phoning me up asking about so and so and would I write a reference for them. This has blown up in their face, as I calmly pointed out that this person has never worked for me and is fact clearly out and out lying in their profile. Whether this has an impact or not it's difficult to say, but it feels good to get it of my chest once in a while.

The best one I've had to date though was a thank you letter from a well respected member of Turkey who was thanking so and so for sending some flowers to his child's funeral. Again this was addressed to my company's address but with these two jack asses claiming to have sent it on essentially my behalf.

TheStone

Has LinkedIn not died off yet?

gtvlusso

Just read a few more......

I read the profile of a girl I used to work with who was actually fired from a company I worked for. She was on a disciplinary for being incompetent for several months, there was no improvement and she was sacked in the end.

Nothing about this on her profile; says how great she was in the job and that she was a top techie! She has moved to another area of the country and is now a technical line manager, apparently......

Do recruiters/HR actually make any checks based on linkedin/cv information? I have had my degree checked; all of my technical and professional qualifications and provided both my immediate boss as a reference and a character reference (usually another colleague).

Do people really go through their careers blindly unaware of how useless they are?!

Fireblade96

gtvlusso wrote:

Do people really go through their careers blindly unaware of how useless they are?!

These people generally get promoted to high managerial roles.

TheStone

gtvlusso wrote:

Do recruiters/HR actually make any checks based on linkedin/cv information? I have had my degree checked; all of my technical and professional qualifications and provided both my immediate boss as a reference and a character reference (usually another colleague).

I was in contact with an examining board recently.

(Long story, but a couple of my A Levels were never 'cashed' in and now can't be. They sent me a certificate saying this is what I would have got had I cashed them in.)

Anyway, I asked what would happen if a potential employer called up to check them? He said he'd worked there for years and it had happened a handful of times.