True story. The name has been changed to protect the innocent.
LinkedIn prompted me to “Please congratulate Allan on his promotion to {job title} at {his current employer}” and knowing him well after many years, watching his career change and then thrive in his new home, I heartily congratulated him on the new career advancement development. Because we all should do that, right?
And he replied “I didn’t get promoted. I fixed a typo in my job. Thanks tho.”
I bet he got a lot of congratulations messages. But he didn’t warrant them (in this case).
Why does this happen (and I see it fairly often)?
And how can you prevent it from happening to you, notifying everyone you are connected to, of a not-so-accurate job change?
It’s simple and takes a the time of just one click of the mouse.
When you are fixing a typo, or editing the narrative of your job in LinkedIn, at the bottom of the job section BEFORE you click “Save” is a rocker switch that you can move to “off” and then click “Save.” Your profile is then changed in real-time and your connection group will not be notified of the change.
Here’s where to find it (see red box):
You can manage the delivery of job change news by manipulating the rocker switch between on (“If enabled, your network will be notified of this job change and work anniversaries”) or off, as would have been better for Allan’s typo change. The default is yes, so caveat editor!
From the Help Center:
Some types of edits made to your profile won’t generate notifications to your network even if you’ve enabled sharing, such as changes to your:
- Profile photo
- Headline
- Intro
- Contact info
- Past positions
- Education
- Volunteer experience
- Languages
- Skills
- Publications
- Certifications
- Courses
- Projects
- Test scores
- Organizations
- Patents
But the others will.
You’re in control now that you know how this works.
