LinkedIn launched a new feature a handful of years ago that lets you quickly and easily endorse people in your network for one or more skill sets they’ve chosen to list for themselves. Anyone who is actively looking for work right now should be striving to get endorsed often. Here’s why…
Recruiters Will Be Looking At Your LinkedIn Endorsements
Before this feature was launched, people could “game” their profile for a type of job by filling it with skill sets—in other words, keyword-optimizing their LinkedIn profile—to ensure their profile showed up in a recruiter’s proactive search for talent via LinkedIn. Simply fill your headline, “About” section (Summary), and “Experience” section (Work History) with these keywords and you were improving the chances you’d be looked at.
You absolutely should optimize your LinkedIn profile, and this is a great strategy that most job seekers don’t use, so you might have a competitive advantage over those people in your job search. The problem is just because you claim you have these skills, doesn’t mean the rest of the world thinks you have them too.
Endorsements solve that problem! Now, when a recruiter sees you say you are good at “sales” and it’s validated by dozens of endorsements, they know you are the real deal. They’ll be more likely to contact you instead of another job candidate who is not endorsed for that skill.
Mondays Were Made For “Endorse Day” On LinkedIn
Taking a page from the highly successful #followfriday ritual over on X, coupled with the statistical evidence to support it, Monday is a terrible day to reach out to recruiters and others for help in your job search, so it occurred to me that Mondays are the ideal day to start an “Endorse Day” ritual.
The idea is simple: every Monday, take 10 minutes out of your morning to pay it forward by endorsing 10 people in your LinkedIn network. Imagine how you would feel if, in your inbox on a Monday (aka the day of the week when even the most cheerful people struggle to get going), you found endorsements of your skill sets from your peers. Would it make you feel good? Yup. Would it make you realize what a great colleague they were for taking the time to do it? Sure thing. Most of all, would it make you want to endorse them back? Bingo!
In short, you have to give to get. So, why not make Mondays the day you give to those in your network? Not only will it make you feel good, I guarantee you will get a good return on your investment!
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