| June 17, 2009 | Posted By: Trevor Wilson | Category: LinkedIn |
Last week I received a LinkedIn request from a former colleague who I worked with years ago. He was asking for a generic LinkedIn recommendation that he could use as part of his profile.
I must admit, he’s a good guy. He does quality work and he’s fun to hang out with. We’ve even played poker a couple of times. And though we have not spoken in the recent past (over two years), I still consider him a friend.
But I’m having trouble bringing myself to write the recommendation.
Why you ask? See if you can tell based on his request (which I edited to remove the personal details):
Dear Trevor,
I’m building out my LinkedIn profile and am hoping that you can offer a brief recommendation of my work at [Our Company]. If you have any questions, let me know. I’ll also be sure to return the favor.
Thanks in advance for helping me out.
- Name Removed
Normally, I’m extremely pleased when someone personalizes a LinkedIn request. It ensures that I will at least add them to my contact list. However, it was the line “I’ll also be sure to return the favor” that has caused my concern.
Here’s my problem. I’m convinced that LinkedIn recommendations are worthless. They are being used as a badge of honor on a person’s profile. Like Contacts on LinkedIn, Followers on Twitter, or Friends of Facebook, LinkedIn Recommendations are being used as a quantifiable judge of a person’s worth. The general idea is that someone who has more recommendations is “better” than someone with fewer recommendations. It becomes a race to accumulate accolades instead of a genuine way to post honest recommendations.
The issue I have is with the process of trading recommendations. If I were to write a recommendation for a friend with the sole purpose of getting a recommendation in return, what is that recommendation truly worth?
Nothing in my opinion.
So even though he should be recommended on the basis of his work, I have trouble doing this for him if I’m just going to be playing a social networking “friend” game. His career deserves better treatment.
Do you play the recommendation game? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to leave a comment.
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I only ask for recommendations from people that know me enough to do so, and I don’t just write recommendations for anybody – only people that I can properly give benefit to.
- CB
That’s the best way to do it.
It ensures that LinkedIn recommendations retain their value (based on their intended purpose) and slows down the “gaming” of the system.
Thanks for commenting!
I am a recent grad and have only used LinkedIn for less than a year. However,I thought it was common courtesy to recommend the person that recommends you.
When I was recommended by a former colleague (who I asked to recommend me), I took it upon myself to give him a great recommendation too. I never told him that I would. I just did it to show him (and others) that I trust his opinion and that I appreciate his kind words.
I understand how your situation is different though. Your friend was trying to give you an incentive when it wasn’t necessary.
I’m on the fence with this one. While I can understand how it can be considered a courtesy to recommend those who have recommended you, I believe that it steals from the validity of the recommendation.
Just my two cents…
I do the same as CB
I think you are way too critical and self-centered. The way I see it, you are basically refusing to write a brief recommendation for a person who you admit to be a good friend who also does quality work. That’s pretty pathetic. You must think very highly of yourself to then rush off and write a ‘blog’ about this topic to justify your position and also lecture/educate us on your theory of things. I don’t use Linkedin much, or any other social media site for that matter but I think people like you are the worst as you make too many rules for yourself and others. If you don’t like giving recommendations and you just feel that they are a badge of honor, then I sure hope you have 0 recommendations and less than 50 connections because anything outside of that will make you a hypocrite.
I can see that we don’t see eye-to-eye on the matter, but I do appreciate having different perspectives on the site. Perhaps you can share your constructive thoughts on how to improve the LinkedIn Recommendations process and make it more transparent?