LinkedIn recommendations- Do they replace references?

[simplicity]

Just wondering if references are still as important these days as a lot of people seem to have recommendations on LinkedIn. Have you ever started a contract without a reference? Does LinkedIn serve as confirmation that you are legit?

[WTFH]

Just wondering if references are still as important these days as a lot of people seem to have recommendations on LinkedIn.

Recommendations on LinkedIn are the same as Likes on Facebook. It makes you feel good, but has little/no effect on others.

Have you ever started a contract without a reference?

Yes, have had several where no reference was required, but some of my contracts have come about because other contractors have recommended me while they are on the client site.

Does LinkedIn serve as confirmation that you are legit?

No. You could call yourself the Messiah on LinkedIn, even though you're just a very naughty boy.

[Old Greg]

Recommendations on LinkedIn are the same as Likes on Facebook. It makes you feel good, but has little/no effect on others.

I think that is true of endorsements on LinkedIn, but Recommendations can be reasonably lengthy, and if they are from well respected individuals who have also been clients, they do have an effect. But they don't replace references.

[northernladuk]

Yep. If you are LinkedIn you are 100% legit.

https://in.linkedin.com/in/bobshawadiwadi

[SlipTheJab]

Yep. If you are LinkedIn you are 100% legit.

https://in.linkedin.com/in/bobshawadiwadi

I wouldn't share your real LI profile on here NLUK!

[missinggreenfields]

Recommendations on LinkedIn are the same as Likes on Facebook. It makes you feel good, but has little/no effect on others.

You don't half post some drivel.

Endorsements are the equivalent to likes, pretty much, in that they are dead easy to give, you get prodded to endorse people easily, and they count for very little. Almost every endorsement I receive I think "how the hell do you know whether I'm any good at that or not?" because they tend to be from people who aren't in a position to judge.

Recommendations are the equivalent to references in the eyes of many - they can be detailed and lengthy and provide a reference for the work that you have done and your skills. As with many references they should be treated with a fair degree of cynicism, because you aren't going to ask for a recommendation from someone who is going to give you a bad one (though I did once ask for an appraisal as a permie from someone I worked with and got absolutely slated in it). But to say that they have little or no effect on others shows either (1) the standard of recommendations one receives; (2) general ignorance about the subject matter; or (3) a bit of both.

And three has always been my lucky number.

[LondonManc]

Recommendations on LinkedIn are good, but sometimes done mutually to talk each other up (but so are references at time, or at least they used to be).

References now only confirm attendance at a gig/perm role and cannot be opinion-based so are nothing more than a box-checking exercise. Similarly they prevent people who don't want you to leave slagging you off and so on. The onus is much more on the interviewer to conduct good interviews these days.

[WTFH]

Call it cynicism on my part. I've been asked to write recommendations for people, and the request comes as "Will you recommend me, then I'll recommend you". If the recommendation comes at that price, then it doesn't seem as genuine to me.

[Pondlife]

Call it cynicism on my part. I've been asked to write recommendations for people, and the request comes as "Will you recommend me, then I'll recommend you". If the recommendation comes at that price, then it doesn't seem as genuine to me.

I going to guess that you don't give such recommendations? If so then surely the system works, no?

[WTFH]

I going to guess that you don't give such recommendations? If so then surely the system works, no?

I did in the early days when I thought LinkedIn was the best way to get a role.