If you’re like most job seekers, you have your LinkedIn profile on your resume. With resumes being so one-dimensional, a LinkedIn profile showing your recommendations, skills, and experience in a more interactive way can be a great way to get those interviews.
However, a common mistake I’ve seen on many resumes is that their profile link pulls up a 404. Yet, the URL seems to be correct.
The reason is actually simple: capitalization. Stylistically, all caps look great in a header. However, try clicking on the link below and you’ll find yourself on a 404 page, not my LinkedIn profile.
ELIZABETH GRACE BECKER
HTTPS://WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/IN/ELIZABETHGRACEBECKER
Now, try this link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethgracebecker
When a hiring manager or recruiter clicks on or copy and pastes the all caps link, they get a LinkedIn page not found (404). They likely won’t know the quick fix so instead of seeing all those great recommendations, they’ll simply think you made a mistake on your resume.
When you look at your profile on LinkedIn, notice the URL isn’t in all caps. Often, it shouldn’t make a difference whether you use caps or not in the URL, as most servers are set up to be case insensitive. However, this is not always the case (aka Linux servers) and it’s best practice to share URLs’ exactly how they are displayed in the URL bar, otherwise you may run into issues.
With LinkedIn, all it takes is changing the /in/ to /IN/ and suddenly the hiring manager is seeing a 404 and not giving you a call back.
Of course LinkedIn could likely set up their servers to redirect whether or not any part of the URL is in caps. As you can see in this example, the /in/ is not capitalized but my name is. The LinkedIn server is still able to pull up the correct page. There may be intentional reasoning from the LinkedIn team, but until they make a change, it might be a good idea to check your resume to make sure you’re not displaying your LinkedIn profile link in caps.
Use your LinkedIn profile in your signature as well? I run into a lot of dead or bad links when trying to visit a social profile from a signature. Always make sure to test those links as well to get traction to your LinkedIn page.
TL;DR
When sharing your LinkedIn profile on your resume or signature, don’t use caps.
HTTPS://WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/IN/ELIZABETHGRACEBECKER
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethgracebecker
-Elizabeth Becker, Marketing Manager and Client Partner @ PROTECH
