Do LinkedIn recommendations matter at all?

[tractor]

....

I think LinkedIn recommendations lack real weight because they are just people recommending each other for the sake of it. You recommend me and I'll recommend you. It's not a genuine recommendation.

I would have thought a good, relevant, recent work history on the old CV is worth more. Combined with a few renewals so the client knows you were valued.

If you are on the hiring side, it is easy to spot mutual adulation and decide how much weight it should have.

The only real 'hit' I ever had from LinkedIn was spoiled by a greedy, stupid agent. Client was great, role was great and a good fit for me and the client but the contract was by far and away the worst that I have ever seen and there was no prospect of budging from the agent.

I am still prepared to put that down to bad luck though. One of the surprising things is that although I get a lot of interest from unheard of one man bands working from their outhouse smaller agents, there seems to be very little activity generated by the larger, more well known ones.

YMMV

[SlipTheJab]

I find the constant LinkedIn requests from new pimps who were flogging mobiles at carphone warehouse 5 minutes ago and are now 'senior talent development consultants' annoying, they get deleted by me straight away.

[Batcher]

When I first started on LinkedIn I would give someone a recommendation if they requested it and they would normally return the favour, but then it became clear that it was just mutual back-scratching and would be obvious as such.

Mind you, if I get to the stage of having to give references for a contract it's normally Ltd Co contractors I've worked with I give as referees to the ClientCo and I've been referee for other people in the past.

There is a group something along the lines of "IT Contracts in Scottish Banking" and a Lorien agent keeps listing available contracts in it so worth keeping an eye on if you are interested.

[NickNick]

Good to hear Bob is still about. Where's he working ?

Here with me.

[rootsnall]

Here with me.

The rumour was he'd got visa problems.

[MattZani]

And I've started to realise that the LinkedIn profile shouldn't be a mirror image of the CV.

Interesting. Could you please elaborate?
Thanks

[BrilloPad]

I have loads of recommendations. From my sockies.

LinkedIn Recommendations are as valuable as CUK rep...

[TechJinx]

I have a ton of them - people seem to "just click a few times when they log in as it dismisses the reminder"

thats a quote from a mate who's a car mechanic and recently recommended my "Stakeholder Engagement" and "PMO Management" skills. When questioned in the pub he didn't know what a PMO was so I'd say they're next to useless.

Overall its a good site if you follow the company pages of places you're interested in and as a couple have mentioned I always check linked in when I get a CV in for a role. It has 3 major benefits

- you can see real recommendations - i.e. when people have take the time to write a reference on the page
- most linked in resumes are better written and more succinct than the drivel some people submit as a CV........
- If you don't know the company name you can click on the link and see if they're some FTSE250 operation or just a couple of blokes in a garage operation.

[MattZani]

I have a ton of them - people seem to "just click a few times when they log in as it dismisses the reminder"

thats a quote from a mate who's a car mechanic and recently recommended my "Stakeholder Engagement" and "PMO Management" skills. When questioned in the pub he didn't know what a PMO was so I'd say they're next to useless.

these are the "endorsements", not "recommendations"

[TheFaQQer]

Interesting. Could you please elaborate?
Thanks

There are phrases and styles that I would put on my LinkedIn profile that wouldn't appear on my CV.

Your best bet (if you're an IPSE member) is to spend a couple of hours on their webinars when they next do one for LinkedIn writing and CV writing.

If you're already a member, send me a PM on the IPSE forums and I'll send you a link to the recording of the last LinkedIn one they did.