How To Get and Give Endorsements on LinkedIn

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What does it mean to “endorse” or “be endorsed” on LinkedIn? Skill endorsements are an easy way for your LinkedIn connections to attest to your expertise.

LinkedIn allows you to select up to 50 skills and highlight them in the Skills & Endorsements section of your profile. Once you’ve chosen which skills you want to emphasis, your first-degree LinkedIn connections can endorse you for those competencies. 

Including skill endorsements in your profile can help you rank higher in LinkedIn search, build your personal brand, and attract the attention of recruiters and hiring managers.

LinkedIn Endorsements vs. Recommendations

First, it's important to know that skill endorsements are different from LinkedIn recommendations.

A recommendation on LinkedIn is a written reference supporting you and your work. It typically involves a few sentences (or a of couple paragraphs) published on your profile. You might consider this a virtual recommendation letter for all to see.

Note

Skill endorsements work differently than recommendations. Any first-degree connection can visit your profile, read your skills list, and hit the “endorse” button for the skills they know you have.

Endorsements are relatively easy to provide—all it takes is one click. However, you do not want to be endorsed for every skill imaginable. Choose only skills that you want to emphasize to hiring managers.

On a similar note, you shouldn’t be too quick to endorse everyone you know for every skill. You may not actually be helping them highlight the skills they want hiring managers to see.

Endorsements on Your LinkedIn Profile

When someone wants to endorse you, LinkedIn will offer suggestions on which skills to endorse you for (e.g. blogging, Adobe Photoshop, product development, etc.). The endorsements you receive will be listed on your profile in a section called Skills & Endorsements (listed under Education and before Recommendations).

Note

You can also highlight your top three skills, reorder your skills, hide specific skills endorsements, or opt out of endorsements altogether.

How helpful are skill endorsements? While it is difficult to quantify just how endorsements will influence recruiters or employers that review your profile, it is safe to say three things:

  1. Endorsements will never hurt your profile (unless you are being endorsed for skills you don’t want publicized);
  2. A lack of endorsements might make viewers skeptical about your social media savvy as well as any skill sets you claim on your profile; and…
  3. Combined with recommendations, a large amount of endorsements will make you look like a superstar in your industry.

How to Get the Right Skill Endorsements

It's important that the skill endorsements you get are a match for your abilities and experience. The best way to set up your profile to get accurate skill endorsements is to start by itemizing a wide selection of critical skills and knowledge assets on your profile so you can give potential endorsers plenty of options. Make sure you cover as many skills areas as possible within your industry, especially if you are transitioning to a new field.

Note

LinkedIn also offers a skills assessment feature that allows you to verify your skills by taking an online quiz. Once you pass the assessment in the 70th percentile, you can add a verified skill badge to your profile.

LinkedIn Endorsement Examples

LinkedIn categorize your skills into five areas:

  • Top Skills
  • Industry Knowledge
  • Tools & Technologies
  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Other Skills

Try to incorporate a combination of both general and specialized skills into your list of skills open for endorsement. If you are branching out into a new field and don't yet possess many specialized skills, make sure you include as many transferable skills as possible.

How to Get Skill Endorsements

One of the best ways to get skill endorsements on LinkedIn is to endorse others, particularly those that have had seen you use your skills. LinkedIn members receive an email notification when endorsements are added to their profile, and this helps you get noticed.

Sample Message Requesting an Endorsement

You also can send a simple private message, such as:

John,

You might have noticed that I recently added endorsements to your profile. I am building up that component of my profile and would love to have any endorsements which you might feel comfortable adding given our past working relationship.

Specifically, I am seeking endorsement for [the following skills]. Since I want to be a help to you, as well, please let me know if there is/are skill(s) that you would like more endorsements for.

Thank you!

Mary

How to Turn Off Skill Endorsements

You can choose which skill endorsements to show on your profile—or opt out of them completely.

Here's how to opt out of specific skill endorsements:

  • Click the Me icon at the top of the LinkedIn homepage
  • Click View Profile
  • Scroll down to Skills & Endorsements
  • Click the name of the specific skill you’d like to remove from your profile
  • Hide endorsements by toggling to the right of the connection whose endorsement you wish to remove

And here’s how to turn off all endorsements: 

  • Click the Me icon at the top of the LinkedIn homepage
  • Click View Profile
  • Scroll down to Skills & Endorsements
  • Click the Edit icon
  • Click Adjust Endorsement Settings
  • Toggle the “I want to be endorsed” option to No
  • Click the X in the right corner to save

Note

This will prevent connections from endorsing you until you change your settings to accept endorsements.

How to Turn Off Endorsement Notifications

If you don't want your email cluttered with notifications about the endorsements you're getting, you can turn them off. Here’s how:

  • Click the Me icon at the top of the LinkedIn homepage
  • Select Settings & Privacy
  • Click the Communications section
  • Click On LinkedIn, Email, or Push
  • Click Profile
  • Use the Edit icon to turn off or change the frequency of notifications

How to Delete and Add Skills

It’s a good idea for you to go through your Skills & Endorsements list on a regular basis. Scroll down the section on your profile and click the pencil icon on the right-hand side.

Set top skills. LinkedIn allows you to select three skills as your top skills. To make a skill a top skill, click on the pin icon on the left of the skill. It will go from white to blue and move to the top your skills list. This lets people know that you want to be known for these skills above all others.

Remove skills. As you scroll through your list of skills, you may notice some that you do not want on your profile. Simply click the trash can icon on the right to remove them.

Reorder skills. If you want to reorder your skills, you can select the four lines icon on the right, click and drag to the spot you want it to stay.

Add a skill. To add a skill, close out of the edit skills box and select the Add a New Skill on right of the Skills & Endorsements section. LinkedIn will suggest some skills (based on your experience), or you may type in skills that you want listed. Remember that LinkedIn allows for you to list up to 50 skills.

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Sources
The Balance uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
  1. LinkedIn Help. “Skill Endorsements—Overview.” Accessed Nov. 23, 2020.

  2. LinkedIn Help. “Opting Out of Endorsements.” Accessed Nov. 23, 2020.

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