You don’t know me…

LinkedIn endorsements are not real endorsements.

People I’ve never met are going around telling other people about me and what I’m good at. Now, you ask, “Jason, how can someone endorse you, if they don’t know you?” My answer is, people like to be liked. I can only assume that they hope that if they endorse me for something on LinkedIn, I will endorse them back. I mean, I’ve recently made and been endorsed for being a LinkedIn Endorser (seriously, check it out here www.linkedin.com/in/jasonwdonnelly), so I’ve gotta be a good person to endorse, right?

What does that mean to you in a job search? It means that if you’re being endorsed by a lot of people for the things you do at your job, your LinkedIn profile will look great.

Look.

Great.

That’s about it.

If you’d really like to impress the hiring manager you put yourself in front of, you have two big options.

Do better work than everyone else. Honestly, this is one of the biggest things I see as a recruiter. Be honest with yourself, and work harder than you did, yesterday. You can be endorsed for being a rock star for all I care, but if you can’t sing or play an instrument in the real world, it doesn’t really matter, does it? How’s that endorsement working out for you? Get recommendations from people who actually know your work, and know how to help you get to the next level. When you ask for the recommendation, ask people, “I’m looking to get a position at _____________, doing work on _____________, and I know that you worked with me at my previous position and have seen me in action. Would you mind writing me a recommendation focused around ______________?”

So, in short, do better than the competition and get real recommendations. The foofoo (that’s the technical term) that you’re getting for endorsements is pretty, but solid, fact-driven recommendations will always trump a big number next to your endorsement for basket-weaving.

Do you agree? Disagree? Comment away!

*originally posted January 29th, 2013 on the TTS Staffing blog.