Don’t get me wrong, I love you all: the former colleagues from jobs I held eight or ten years ago; the neighbor I have never actually worked with, but who plays a congenial game of poker and is an all-around nice guy. I appreciate that you took the time to go on LinkedIn and endorse me for everything from “Software Development” (because there is no aspect of it I am not awesome at), to SQL Server, ASP.NET, astrobiology, xenolinguistics, and starship navigation. It’s true, I am a master of all those things.
But there’s no way most of you guys could have known that, because, well, we haven’t spoken in a decade or so. I wish that weren’t the case. I’m terrible at keeping in touch. But then, hey, you didn’t call either. I guess, in a way, this puts us back in communication. You took the time to punch that button on LinkedIn, and that means you were thinking of me, or at least stumbled on my bio pic as an artifact of an otherwise accurate search for people you care about. In either event I’m gratified. But I am not going to return the favor, and I thought you deserved to know why before I clear my inbox.
See, in other than a very few cases to which I have already tended, I just don’t know what you’re good at anymore. Ten years ago I was writing C# code, pulling data out of SQL Server, feeding it to ASP’s renderer, writing form-based web apps. When I code now I write Python, stick my data in Postgresql, and use ajax calls to populate pages. That is, assuming I am not writing Java or Objective C for mobile apps. The world is completely different. If you’ve worked with me in, say, the last year or two then your endorsement might carry some weight, but not after so many years. And the same goes for any endorsement I make in return.
I think there may be some value in LinkedIn’s system of professional network references, but whatever that value is, it is certain to diminish with time. Endorsements are perishable. And given that, regardless of how many I collect, any potential employer is still likely to want me to put on a nice shirt, schlep in for an interview, and prove I actually know my stuff. It’s inconvenient, but it makes them feel a lot better about paying me, so I go along. Fortunately I don’t expect to have to go through it for some time, but then, that’s what we always think isn’t it?
In the meantime, I wanted you to know that I do honestly appreciate your effort, and that my lack of a return gesture does not have a linear relationship to the respect and regard in which I hold you. It’s just that it is exactly that, a gesture. I don’t mind “liking” crap on Facebook or G+ from time to time. After all, what am I really saying? Not much. But an endorsement for a specific skill should mean something, and carry some weight, and I just don’t think that LinkedIn endorsements do.