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To get and give endorsements on LinkedIn, list relevant skills, ask people who have directly observed your work, and endorse only first-degree connections for skills you can honestly validate. LinkedIn endorsements are lightweight skill signals—not written recommendations, proof of mastery, or a guarantee of recruiter attention or employment.
A credible endorsement strategy is selective: keep the Skills section focused, connect skills to real projects and results, request recognition after genuine collaboration, and use a written recommendation when a detailed account of someone’s work would be more useful.
Key takeaways
- A LinkedIn skill endorsement validates a skill already listed on a profile; it is not the same as a written recommendation.
- Only endorse a first-degree connection for a skill you have genuinely observed in their work.
- LinkedIn allows up to 100 skills in the Skills section, but a focused list of relevant skills is more credible than an inflated list.
- Endorsements may support profile strength and discovery for relevant opportunities, but LinkedIn does not publish a current formula connecting endorsement counts to search rank or hiring results.
- Hiding an endorsement is different from removing the skill, opting out, or withdrawing an endorsement you gave.
What is a LinkedIn endorsement?
A LinkedIn skill endorsement is a short validation from a first-degree connection for a skill already listed in your profile’s Skills section. The connection is confirming that they have seen you use that skill; they are not writing a detailed assessment of your performance. LinkedIn explains the distinction in its official skill-endorsement documentation.
Endorsements are lightweight professional signals. They can reinforce the skills you claim and may contribute to profile strength or discovery for opportunities related to those skills, according to LinkedIn. However, an endorsement does not independently prove mastery, seniority, current proficiency, certification, job performance, or a guaranteed hiring advantage.
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LinkedIn allows a member to list up to 100 skills. The limit is a ceiling, not a recommendation to fill every available slot. Skills should match the work you want to be known for and should be supported by your Experience, projects, portfolio material, certifications, case studies, presentations, or other evidence.
How do LinkedIn endorsements differ from recommendations?
The difference between a LinkedIn endorsement and a recommendation is scope: an endorsement validates one listed skill, while a recommendation is written narrative about someone’s work and professional relationship.
| Feature | Skill endorsement | Written recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Validate a particular skill | Describe how someone worked, what they accomplished, or what collaboration was like |
| Format | Short skill-level validation | Written commendation |
| Where it starts | A skill already listed in the Skills section | A request or recommendation action involving a connection |
| Best use | Reinforcing a focused list of relevant skills | Adding context, examples, outcomes, and personal perspective |
| Who can provide it | Generally a first-degree connection | A first-degree connection with whom you have worked |
| Management options | Individual endorsements can be hidden; members can also opt out | Recommendations can be accepted, hidden, revised, or deleted |
Use an endorsement when you want someone to validate a specific listed skill. Use a recommendation when you want a person to explain your contribution, results, reliability, or working style. LinkedIn’s recommendations guidance covers the broader written format.
How do you give an endorsement on LinkedIn?
To give a LinkedIn endorsement, open a first-degree connection’s profile, find the skill you have genuinely observed, and use the add control beside that skill. LinkedIn’s current English-language instructions also say that multiple listed skills may be endorsed in one session, although labels and screen layouts can change.
- Open the person’s LinkedIn profile.
- Confirm that the person is a first-degree connection. An endorsement workflow is not the same as simply following or viewing a profile.
- Scroll to the Skills section. On a phone, you may need to expand the section or use the profile’s available controls before the skills are visible.
- Find a skill you can honestly validate from direct experience.
- Select the add or endorsement control beside that skill. The control may appear differently as LinkedIn updates its interface.
- Choose only the skills you have actually seen the person use. If you cannot explain why the skill is deserved, do not select it.
LinkedIn’s official workflow for endorsing someone’s skills is the best reference if the control or profile layout differs from these general steps.
What makes an endorsement credible?
A credible endorsement passes three tests:
- Knowledge: You have actually seen the person use the skill.
- Specificity: The skill is meaningful and relevant to the person’s professional direction.
- Accuracy: You would be comfortable explaining the basis for the endorsement to another professional.
Good evidence might come from collaborating on a project, reviewing someone’s work, managing them, receiving their professional service, or observing the skill in a meaningful work, academic, or client context. Endorsing a skill only because it is popular, because someone asked, or because you hope to receive a reciprocal click weakens the signal.
How can you get legitimate LinkedIn endorsements?
The most reliable way to get relevant LinkedIn endorsements is to make your target skills accurate and visible, demonstrate those skills in real work, and ask selectively after people have observed the results. LinkedIn does not require members to request endorsements before receiving them.
- Choose relevant skills. Keep skills that match your current role, target job, services, or professional direction. Remove skills that are outdated, inflated, duplicated, or unrelated.
- Connect skills to evidence. Describe where you used important skills in your Experience entries. Add relevant projects, portfolio media, certifications, case studies, presentations, or outcomes where appropriate.
- Keep the profile current. Update roles, responsibilities, projects, and accomplishments so contacts can recognize the work they actually observed.
- Build genuine professional relationships. Managers, teammates, clients, project partners, mentors, and classmates can be suitable contacts when they directly saw the relevant ability.
- Give accurate recognition first. Endorse people when they deserve it, but do not treat a genuine endorsement as a trade or a debt.
- Ask selectively. Request one relevant skill from an appropriate person after a real collaboration rather than sending a mass request for every skill.
LinkedIn’s 2024 guidance on adding skills to a LinkedIn profile emphasizes relevant skills, how those skills were used, and evidence such as projects and other profile material. LinkedIn’s profile guidance likewise recommends keeping relevant experience and profile evidence current.
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What should you write when requesting an endorsement?
LinkedIn does not prescribe one official request script. A strong request is specific, optional, and tied to work the recipient actually saw. You can adapt this example:
Hi [Name]—I enjoyed working with you on [project or responsibility]. Since you saw me handle [specific skill], would you feel comfortable endorsing me for [skill] on LinkedIn? No pressure if it is not a fit, and I’m happy to return the favor by endorsing skills I’ve genuinely seen you use.
Personalize the project and skill. Do not ask someone to endorse every skill, imply that an endorsement is owed, or promise a reciprocal endorsement that is not based on direct experience. “I’m happy to return the favor” should never mean “I will endorse you regardless of what I have observed.”
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How do you improve the chance of receiving relevant endorsements?
Make the requested skill easy to recognize before you ask. For example, someone seeking project-management endorsements should show project-management responsibilities, deliverables, collaboration, and outcomes in relevant Experience or project entries. A vague skills list gives contacts little context for deciding whether an endorsement is accurate.
| Profile action | Why it helps | What to avoid |
|---|---|---|
| List skills aligned with your target work | Contacts can validate skills that are relevant to your current direction | Adding every vaguely familiar skill |
| Describe applied skills in Experience entries | People can connect the skill to a real responsibility or result | Listing a skill with no supporting context |
| Add projects, media, case studies, or presentations | Evidence adds context beyond an endorsement count | Presenting unsupported claims as proof of expertise |
| Ask a small number of people over time | Selective requests are more credible than a bulk campaign | Mass messaging strangers or weak contacts |
| Pair endorsements with recommendations and outcomes | Narrative and concrete results show more than a skill signal alone | Relying on endorsements as your only evidence |
When should you request a LinkedIn recommendation instead?
Request a LinkedIn recommendation when a person can describe your work, results, judgment, or collaboration in their own words. A recommendation is more useful than an endorsement when the reader needs context about how you applied a skill rather than a simple confirmation that you possess it.
To request a recommendation, LinkedIn’s documented process asks you to choose the connection, identify the relationship and the position you held at the time, and include a personalized message. To write one, open the first-degree connection’s profile, choose Recommend, supply the relationship and position, and write the recommendation. See LinkedIn’s instructions for requesting a recommendation and recommending someone.
If you want a broader, hands-on resource covering profile visibility, skills, endorsements, recommendations, and networking, a LinkedIn profile optimization book or audiobook is an adjacent option. The resource is broader than endorsements alone; verify its current format, availability, retail details, and eligibility before publication or purchase.
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You can hide an individual endorsement without removing the underlying skill. Open the relevant skill, view the people who endorsed it, and switch the particular endorsement off or on. Hiding all endorsements for a skill may affect the skill’s display order. LinkedIn documents these controls in its guide to hiding or showing a skill endorsement.
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Hiding an endorsement is not the same as deleting the skill. Removing a skill can remove the endorsements attached to that skill. LinkedIn says attached endorsements may reappear if the skill is later added using the exact previous wording, but a different wording may not reconnect the old endorsements. Preserve the skill and hide the endorsement when your goal is only to reduce visibility.
What happens when you opt out of endorsements?
Opting out prevents connections from endorsing you, hides your existing endorsements, and prevents endorsement suggestions from appearing on your profile and on profiles you view. Opting out is therefore broader than hiding one endorsement. Follow LinkedIn’s current opt-out instructions if you want to disable the feature rather than manage individual entries.
How do you remove an endorsement you gave?
To withdraw an endorsement you gave, return to the connection’s profile, find the endorsed skill, and select the checked endorsement control so it changes back to the add control. LinkedIn says the connection is not notified when you remove the endorsement. The control and navigation can change as LinkedIn updates its interface, so consult the official removal instructions if the option is not visible.
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Why are LinkedIn endorsements missing?
A missing LinkedIn endorsement may have been removed, hidden, disconnected from a changed skill, or omitted from a prominent profile display; a missing count does not necessarily mean the original endorsement was deleted.
- The skill was removed. Endorsements attached to a removed skill can disappear with that skill.
- The endorser withdrew the endorsement. The person who gave it can change the checked control back to the add control.
- The connection was broken. LinkedIn says endorsements between two members are automatically removed when the connection is broken and are not restored if the connection is later re-established.
- The endorsement is hidden. Individual endorsement visibility and opt-out settings can prevent an endorsement from appearing.
- The skill wording changed. Re-adding a skill with wording different from the previous wording may not reconnect the old endorsements.
- The profile view is selective. LinkedIn says only the top three endorsed skills are displayed in certain profile views, so lower-ranked skills may not be prominent even when endorsements remain associated with them.
For the documented causes and display behavior, compare the profile with LinkedIn’s guide to skill endorsements missing from a profile. Check the Skills section itself, the exact skill wording, the endorsement visibility settings, and whether the connection still exists before assuming that an endorsement has been permanently deleted.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Do LinkedIn endorsements improve visibility or hiring results?
LinkedIn endorsements may support profile strength and discovery for opportunities related to the endorsed skills, but no current official formula establishes how much one endorsement changes search placement or hiring outcomes. Endorsement counts should therefore be treated as supporting signals, not a ranking lever or hiring guarantee.
Claims such as “ten endorsements will get you hired,” “endorsements guarantee recruiter attention,” or “LinkedIn ranks profiles solely by endorsement count” go beyond the evidence. A stronger profile combines relevant skills with current Experience entries, specific outcomes, projects, portfolio evidence, credentials where relevant, and written recommendations that explain the quality and impact of the work.
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What is the ethical way to exchange LinkedIn endorsements?
The ethical approach is mutual recognition based on observed work, not endorsement trading. You can endorse a colleague who genuinely used a skill and ask that colleague to consider endorsing you for a skill they genuinely saw you use. You should not endorse a skill you have never observed merely because someone endorsed you first.
Before selecting Endorse, ask: Did I see this person use the skill? Is the skill relevant to the person’s current professional direction? Could I explain why the endorsement is deserved? If any answer is no, leave the skill unendorsed. Accurate, limited recognition is more defensible than a large count produced by reciprocal clicking.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a LinkedIn endorsement?
A LinkedIn endorsement is a validation of a skill already listed on a member’s profile, usually provided by a first-degree connection. An endorsement is not a written recommendation and does not independently prove mastery, certification, or job performance.
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Open the first-degree connection’s profile, scroll to Skills, find a skill you have genuinely observed, and select the add or endorsement control beside it. Endorse only skills you can validate from direct experience.
How do I ask someone for a LinkedIn endorsement?
Ask selectively after a real collaboration and name the specific skill the person observed. The request should be optional and personalized; do not ask for every skill or promise an endorsement without a genuine basis.
Can I hide or remove LinkedIn endorsements?
Yes. You can hide an individual endorsement or opt out of endorsements entirely. Hiding one endorsement does not remove the skill, while removing a skill can remove the endorsements attached to it.
Do LinkedIn endorsements help you get hired?
LinkedIn endorsements may support profile strength and discovery for relevant opportunities, but LinkedIn does not publish a current formula linking endorsement counts to search placement or hiring outcomes. Endorsements should supplement concrete experience, projects, results, and recommendations.
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Use LinkedIn endorsements as focused, honest validations of skills you have actually observed. Keep the Skills section relevant, connect skills to real work and evidence, request endorsements selectively, and use written recommendations when narrative context matters. Endorsements can reinforce a profile, but they cannot guarantee visibility, recruiter attention, or a job.
