I Do Not Have Ninja Skills: What to do about Endorsements on LinkedIn

I suspect that Ms. Caroline Emerson is just looking for her 15 minutes of fame on this blog with this question, posed via Twitter.

LinkedIn endorsements are stupid. I wrote about their lack of effectiveness back in May, 2013, when they were introduced and people were getting endorsed for skills like “manslaughter” and “beer drinking.”

The problem is, LinkedIn so persistently asks users to endorse those in their networks, that it’s inevitable that you’re going to have people endorsing you for skills you have, and skills you don’t. You don’t have to accept endorsements. That’s the first step. But in case life moves too fast and you’re not really paying attention, and you suddenly end up with endorsements you don’t want, here’s what to do. Go to Profile –> Edit Profile. Scroll down to Skills & Expertise and find the edit button on the top right. You can add or remove your existing endorsements…

Or you can manage them, which enables you to get rid of the morons in your connections who have inappropriately endorsed you (if that’s the case).

See that green check mark at the top right? If you get really frustrated with the whole thing, you can stop displaying endorsements at any time.

There you go, Caroline Emerson. I hope that helps.