[htaunay]

Really? Three of my last five jobs came from Linked-in.

I find it very convenient to have offers come-in out of the blue, only having to pay the cost of tweaking my profile once a year, and occasionally skimming/deleting random recruiter messages.

I see it as being open to opportunities. Usually, I would only look for a job when: 1) Unemployed, or 2) Unsatisfied at my current position. In both cases I would be motivated to solve the problem ASAP.

But being approached when happily employed gives you the upper hand during negotiations, allowing you to make demands that you would usually not be so confident to make. Not to mention becoming aware of good opportunities when your "job radar" is turned off.

[mrweasel]

Until last month I was in the "LinkedIn is irrelevant"-camp. Then I got the best job offer of my career from a company that does consulting from one of former employer. They don't want to steal people from customers, but when I finally got around update my LinkedIn profile I was contacted three hours later.

Without LinkedIn I would never have gotten the offer, because my new employer would have had no chance of knowing that I no longer work for one of their customers.