I conducted a little experiment several months ago. I joined LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is “a business-oriented social networking site…mainly used for professional networking.” After I joined LinkedIn, the site instructed me to complete my profile. The profile included basic biographical information, the content of my C.V., and a listing of skills. I completed all of the requested information.
Boy, did I!
And this was the whole point of my experiment from the get-go. I listed more skills than you can possibly imagine. Everything I even remotely have the ability to do, I listed. Now—and this is important to me—I did not lie about anything. All of these skills are things that I can do, even if I cannot do all of them WELL, necessarily. But I can say that I was entirely honest in completing my profile. Here are the dozen skills that I listed:
Pastoral Counseling | Biblical Hebrew |
Koine Greek | Private Pilot |
Microsoft Exchange | CDL Class A |
Microsoft SQL Server | C# 3.0 |
ASP.NET | Theological German |
French | Mac OS X |
I completed my profile and put it out for all the world to see.
Now, LinkedIn also features an endorsement feature. One user can endorse another user for the skills that the user has listed in the profile. My entire purpose for setting up this account was to see who would endorse me for what. I was setting a trap.
You see, out of all of these skills, there are only two of them for which the world at large could possibly have even a slight notion as to whether I’m any good at them at all: Biblical Hebrew and Koine Greek. I have, after all, written some things on this blog and others in which I’ve employed the biblical languages. There’s scant evidence of my preaching online, and what does exist is not particularly heavy in the biblical languages, I don’t think. My dissertation was in Church History and did not feature extensive use of the languages. IF you follow my blogging carefully, and IF you’re in a position to evaluate my use of the biblical languages in those posts that feature them, and IF you consider that sample to be a large enough one from which to draw a conclusion, I suppose you might consider yourself to be in a position to endorse me as a scholar in the fields of Biblical Hebrew or Koine Greek. And 28 people did so in Hebrew; 21 in Greek.
And then there were the other things.
Some forty-eight people endorsed me for Pastoral Counseling. Of those forty-eight people, I have served as a pastor to five of them. The remaining forty-three, frankly, haven’t the foggiest idea whether I’m a good pastor or a bad one. They don’t know what approaches I use in pastoral counseling. But I have their endorsement in the field of pastoral counseling.
I’m a private pilot, although I haven’t exercised my privileges in years (if God had intended for man to fly, He would’ve given him more money). Eight people endorsed me as a private pilot. None of them have ever flown with me. I’m tempted to show up at their local airports in a Cessna 152 and see how confident they are in their endorsements! 😉
It gets better. I have a Class A CDL. Now, while I was trying to get my Class A CDL, I ran over a tree at the DMV. Yes, you read that right: I ran over a tree at the DMV. Ran. Over. A. Tree. Statistical studies have shown that you usually fail when you do that. As did I. But I stuck with it and got the license. Would you endorse me as a commercial driver of a tractor-trailer? Two people did, neither of whom have ever seen me in a truck.
Eight people endorsed me for computer-related skills, and I do have them, though not with the proficiency that any professional would have. How anyone outside of a very small group would know whether I’m any good at them or not, I cannot remotely imagine. By the way, I’ve deleted my LinkedIn profile, because I don’t want to embarrass any of the folks who gave me endorsements.
A few years before he died, my father (who had served on many a search committee for a Baptist church) told me (his son serving as a Baptist pastor) the following: “I would place absolutely no confidence in the professional recommendation of any Southern Baptist minister.” Although he wasn’t talking about me—just struggling with another pastor-search—when I heard what he said I hurt a little for all of us. And since that day I’ve felt a little conflicted over the whole matter of references and recommendations.
In the Ten Commandments God warned us never to bear false witness against our neighbor. What about when you bear false witness FOR him? Our collective reputation is on the line. I’d like to encourage us all to think carefully about the importance of our integrity when we are asked to give recommendations and to serve as references.
I know a man on LinedIn who has been pretending to be a pastor for over 20 years. He’s lied about his education, ordination & experience – and has also been endorsed by many. We call him “Phoney Tony” – 🙂
We are experiencing interesting glitches in our exploration of new formats. One is that currently author’s names are not appearing under the post. I’m sure the amazing Dr. Kummer will have that fixed faster than Mike Leake can mobilize his legal team.
In the meantime, I’m putting the author’s name in the post for articles published over the last couple of days.
That leads, of course, to the interesting problem that this post could look like the subject is “LinkedIn Lying by Bart Barber.” Bart is the AUTHOR of the article, not the topic!
Just fixed it for you, Dave. 🙂
Tony might want to clean it up some…but at least it is there now.
It would also be helpful if the comments on the sidebar were identified by which post they are commenting on.
I had one person to let me know that she did not have the skills I mentioned or she wondered, if I knew she did have other skills. Some I deduced from her education and experience, a Master of Science from Virginia Tech is a dead give away to a person having certain kinds of knowledge. Some, of course, she did not have, and I was merely making suppositions. After all, there are many different areas in which one can have a Master of Science, and the same goes for a Master of Arts. I have a Master of Arts in Counseling, and it includes a course in Methods and Statistics, a difficult course. However, it also helped to have another Master of Arts in American Social & Intellectual History, which takes a look at the development of science as well as Social Darwinism, Pragmatism, Puritanism, etc. Having an M.Div. and a D.Min. from SEBTS, when it was the most liberal seminary in the SBC, certainly provides one with a different perspective on issues, especially when one has been a Bible believing conservative, holding the biblical position on inspiration. Education in three different fields (Counseling, History, and theology) and years of research (10,000 5×8 notecards, not counting notebooks full of information plus lectures in various fields) gives on an in-depth and in-detail perspective that is way beyond what most people can imagine. Attending 10 different colleges and universities and teaching in three certainly affects how one looks at education, etc. Why any one would want to pretend is beyond me. I am used to dealing with factual materials, documentation, etc. However, being now separated from my books, I feel like a sheep shorn of its fleece, to say the least.
Not only have I had this happen, I have actually had people add skills to my profile; skills I do not possess. I didn’t know that was even possible.
Having said that, in my recent thesis research, I found LinkedIn to be an incredibly useful resource.
Dave: Will we get to offer opinions on the new format without hijacking any threads?
We are going to do something like that, but right now, Tony is still making changes on a regular basis, so let’s hold off (not that SBC Voices contributors are ever shy about sharing their opinions).
Why do the liars always have to be named Tony? Just asking.
As for me, I was thinking, “Why do Tonys have to lie so much?”
We’re just born that way…
Be nice to Tony. Or the other Tony.
Better yet, go out and win yourself a Tony by writing Southern Baptist: The Musical.
If I have any skills listed on my LinkedIn Profile, I think it’s from other people adding them.
We ought to be very careful with our credibility.
I think you can refuse an endorsement. I’ve also had some people endorsing me for particular skills when I knew they had no idea of what I could actually do, and I believe I’ve been able to drop them.
BTW, wordpress login doesn’t seem to be working. I click on the WordPress button, get a popup come up and leave, then then the page just hangs.
Allow me to clarify something: The article is not a critique of LinkedIn. The article is a critique of the way that we sometimes behave when we’re giving endorsements.
I get all kinds of people, including my parents, clicking on endorsements for me. I’ve thought about going and turn it off because it annoys me so much. But LinkedIn isn’t a facility I intend to use for any meaningful purpose. So I ignore pretty much everything unless I personally know a person who is asking me to add them. Or Todd Littleton… 😉
Wow…and Dave thought emoticons were annoying before…
I have noticed on my LI profile that people have endorsed me for skills I have, but they have no reason to have experienced those skills. I wonder how many are actually endorsing skills? I make it a habit of NOT endorsing people, so if we’re linked and I’ve “endorsed” your skills, perhaps we should investigate.
Bart,
I am planning to enter the Navy SEAL program.
Could you please send me an endorsement?
David R. Brumbelow
🙂