Just double checked and this also happens in Firefox. I think the other user in this thread has explained it well, looks like a JavaScript intercept onClick to prevent the link action and instead call a JavaScript function to open a different link.

In this case it is built into the site so I guess it is OK on the basis that I am trusting LinkedIn to not do anything malicious but it was more the principle as I had previously looked at the status bar to confirm the link was what I was expecting but in the future I will be more wary. Interestingly, right clicking and selecting "copy link" does actually copy the page which is loaded as opposed to the one on the status bar.

If you have linkedin it seems to be links in direct messages if you would like to see yourself.

Yes, that looks exactly like what is happening. For clarity though it is a LinkedIn script not one uploaded by a 3rd party.

It seems to apply to links sent in direct messages which are routed through a linkedin internal page, I assume so they can track you out etc.

It was more the principal of it though, I hadn't considered that the link shown in the status bar could not be the link you would be taken to if you click it but I guess that's part of allowing javascript to run.

I always check the status bar but I actually noticed the other day on LinkedIn or maybe Facebook, that the status bar said one thing, but the link was different,

E.g the hover over said https://website.com but the actual link was something like https://linkedin.com/linkout/wbdjdhgaj?user=xhedb