LinkedIn Endorsements: What They Are, How to Give Them and How to Get Them

A LinkedIn endorsement is a one-click vote from a 1st-degree connection confirming that you have a skill listed on your profile. To endorse someone, open their profile, find the skill, and click the Add icon next to it. To get endorsements, list the right skills, put the most important ones first, and ask people who actually saw your work.

Steps checked on October 14, 2026 against LinkedIn Help: Skill endorsements, Endorse someone's skills, Hide or show a skill endorsement, Opt out of endorsements and Display order of skills. LinkedIn's own pages call the profile section both Skills and Skills & endorsements, so the label you see may differ by app version and interface language.

LinkedIn endorsements at a glance

On a narrow screen, scroll sideways to read every column.

What is an endorsement on LinkedIn?

When you add a skill to your profile, LinkedIn lets your 1st-degree connections validate it. LinkedIn's skill endorsements page describes these validations as skill endorsements that "reinforce their weighting" and says they are different from recommendations. Each endorsement shows the endorser's name and photo next to the skill on your profile, and your most-endorsed skills move toward the top of the section (LinkedIn Help).

So, what does an endorsement on LinkedIn mean? It means one person you are connected to clicked a button to say "yes, this person has this skill." It does not say how well, in what context, or how recently. That is why it is useful as a quick signal and weak as proof.

When you endorse someone, LinkedIn may also ask a few optional questions, such as how you know about their skill. LinkedIn says those answers are not shown to the person, other members or recruiters, are used only in aggregate to make that person's job suggestions, courses and skill-related ads more relevant, and cannot be changed after you submit them.

LinkedIn endorsement vs recommendation

People often mix these up because both sit on your profile and both come from other members. They work very differently.

On a narrow screen, scroll sideways to read every column.

If you want a reference that a hiring manager or client will actually read, ask for a recommendation. Our guide on how to write a LinkedIn recommendation covers the structure, and the free LinkedIn recommendation generator drafts one when you are the person writing it. For finished samples, see LinkedIn recommendation examples.

How to endorse someone on LinkedIn

You can only endorse a 1st-degree connection, and only for skills they have already added (LinkedIn Help). If you use LinkedIn in English, you can endorse several skills at once.

On desktop

1. Go to your connection's profile.
2. Scroll down to the Skills & endorsements section and find the skill. If they list more than three skills, click Show more.
3. Click the Add icon to the left of the skill.

In the LinkedIn app

1. Open your connection's profile.
2. Scroll to the Skills & Endorsements section.
3. Tap the Add icon to the left of the skill. If they have more than three skills, tap See all to find it.

Your name and photo then appear next to that skill on their profile, and they get an email about it if they have opted in to those emails.

How to remove an endorsement you gave

Open the person's profile, find the skill, and click or tap the checkmark icon to the left of it. It turns back into an Add icon, which means the endorsement is gone. LinkedIn says the connection is not notified.

How to get endorsements on LinkedIn

There is no button to request an endorsement, and LinkedIn says you don't need to. Endorsements follow from two things: the skills you list, and the people who know your work. Here is an honest way to get more of them.

1. List skills people can actually vouch for. Add the skills you use in your current work, not every tool you touched once. Use the exact names people search for, such as "Financial Modeling" rather than a clever phrase.
2. Put your most important skills first. When you list more than three skills, visitors have to click Show more to see the rest (LinkedIn Help). Reorder your skills (steps below) so the ones you want known are visible without expanding.
3. Ask people who saw the work. A former manager, a client or a teammate on a specific project. Name one or two skills and the project, so they know what you are asking for.
4. Endorse others only when you mean it. Endorsing a colleague first can prompt them to return the favor, but only endorse skills you have seen them use. Trading clicks with strangers fills your profile with endorsements nobody believes.
5. Keep your profile consistent. If your headline and About section say you are a product designer, endorsements for "Product Design" back that up. A long list of unrelated skills makes each endorsement count for less. Our LinkedIn profile optimization guide covers the rest of the profile.

Message template to ask for an endorsement

Send this as a direct message, edited so it sounds like you. It is under 300 characters:

Hi Sam, I've just updated the skills on my profile. If it feels accurate from our work on the Q3 pricing project, would you endorse me for Financial Modeling? No worries if not. Happy to do the same for any skill of yours I've seen firsthand.

Replace the name, project and skill. Keep the "if it feels accurate" line: it gives the person an easy way out, which makes a yes mean more.

How to manage your LinkedIn endorsements

Add or remove skills

You can add up to 100 skills. That limit applies to the Skills section only; skills attached to roles in your Experience section don't count toward it. On desktop, click Me, then View Profile, click Add profile section, choose Core, then Add skills. To delete one, open the Skills section's Edit icon, click the Edit icon next to the skill and choose Delete skill. LinkedIn notes that a skill's language can't be changed directly: you have to remove it and add it again, which permanently deletes its endorsements.

Reorder your skills

LinkedIn groups skills into Industry Knowledge, Tools & Technologies and Interpersonal Skills once you have more than three. You can reorder skills within a category but not move one between categories (LinkedIn Help).

1. Click Me, then View Profile.
2. Scroll to Skills and click the Edit icon.
3. Click the More icon in the upper right, then Reorder.
4. Drag the Sort icon next to a skill to move it.

In the app, tap your profile picture, then your photo again to open your profile, tap the Edit icon on Skills, tap More, then Reorder, and drag the reorder icon.

Hide a single endorsement

On desktop, go to your profile, scroll to Skills and click a skill's name. In the pop-up, switch the toggle next to a member's name to hide or show their endorsement (LinkedIn Help). In the app, tap the Edit icon on Skills, tap a skill, and use the same toggle. If you hide every endorsement on a skill, that skill may move to the bottom of your list. To stop one person from endorsing you at all, LinkedIn Help points to removing the connection; they are not notified.

Turn off endorsements completely

1. Go to your profile, scroll to Skills and click the Edit icon.
2. Click the More icon in the upper right, then Endorsement settings.
3. Set I want to be endorsed to No, then close the window.

According to LinkedIn's opt-out page, this stops connections from endorsing you, hides all your existing endorsements, and stops endorsement suggestions on profiles you view and on your own profile. It can take a few minutes to apply. The same Endorsement settings pop-up holds the other endorsement options, each with a Yes or No toggle (LinkedIn Help).

Change endorsement notifications

Go to Me, then Settings & Privacy, then Notifications, then Updating your profile, then New skill endorsements. There you can turn the notification on or off and set how often you get emails (LinkedIn Help). LinkedIn also says endorsement activity does not appear in your connections' feed or your profile's activity section.

Do LinkedIn endorsements matter?

Somewhat, and in a narrow way. LinkedIn says endorsements contribute to the strength of your profile and that this "increases the likelihood that you'll be discovered for opportunities related to the skills you possess" (LinkedIn Help). LinkedIn does not publish how much weight they carry, so be wary of any guide that claims a specific number of endorsements unlocks anything.

A reasonable way to think about them:

• They help with consistency. Endorsements on the skills that match your headline make your profile easier to read at a glance.
• They say little on their own. A reader cannot tell whether an endorser worked with you for years or clicked a suggestion.
• Who endorses you matters more than how many. Ten endorsements from former teammates say more than fifty from people you have never met.
• They are not a substitute for proof. A written recommendation, a portfolio link in Featured, or a post that explains how you solved a real problem shows the skill instead of claiming it.

That last point is where most people have room to improve. If you want your skills to be visible in what you post, not just in a list, WriteHero drafts LinkedIn posts in your own voice from your real posts, which can make it easier to write about the work your endorsements point to. For headline ideas that match your top skills, try the free LinkedIn headline generator.