I remember looking up a former coworker who was a great coworker who I was trying to recruit.
It was so odd that he had links to people that he hated. Not only that they each had written about each other and how good the other person was. It was all made up. It was weird since I had worked there and knew the calibre of their work.
I remember asking him why. He just said that is how he and the others networked. Or maybe they all hoped that the others would get another job and leave -- you know when someone gives a stellar reference.
Concluding that "Linkedin is too faked" based on what would appear to be a really small sample seems a bit rash.
If I were to quickly generalize over "my neighborhood" in the Linkedin graph, I'd say that most people I am connected to are rather careful about whom they endorse and how.
These two conflicting observations aren't really surprising. I have evaluated a lot of resumes over the years from people across the globe and how people present themselves, their skills, and their work experience seems to vary a lot.
Yes you are right. One sample is not representative.
I should have added that I also noticed - of the 35 people (that I knew very well) that I checked in LInkedin, all 35 had misrepresented themselves in Linkedin to some degree.
As a statistical analyst, I realize that a sample size of 30 or greater is actually pretty good. So... I stand with my conclusion to be weary of Linkedin profiles since they are in the end what all resumes are: marketing collateral.
I guess the issue is this marketing does not accurately represent the product or service. And in a sense this has nothing to do with Linkedin specifically. Only that they display the marketing pieces and I somehow misunderstood that what I would find there would be more realistic/truthful and match my empirical info.
It was so odd that he had links to people that he hated. Not only that they each had written about each other and how good the other person was. It was all made up. It was weird since I had worked there and knew the calibre of their work.
I remember asking him why. He just said that is how he and the others networked. Or maybe they all hoped that the others would get another job and leave -- you know when someone gives a stellar reference.
Linkedin is too faked.