[linearrust]

> The conventional wisdom for getting job leads as a new grad and early career is to go to job fair, have a portfolio and open a LinkedIn account.

Conventional wisdom isn't very wise. For college grads, the best thing is contacts. Is your dad, uncle or anyone in your network or your family's network or your friend's network a 'big shot' anywhere? If no, the second best thing is work experience. Does your college offer internships or work programs of any kind? If so, join it. Nobody I knew who had internship/work/coop/etc experience in college had trouble finding jobs. Most of them had full-time positions secured before graduation.

> Somehow I don't feel that I'm at a point in my career that I can ditch all my online presence and still get job leads.

During your first job build a contact/network list. You can use that to find the next job. Besides, a significant portion of jobs are word of mouth. For every open position, the manager usually goes around asking if his team knows anyone.

Most people I know don't have linkedin. It's only here where people act like linkedin is a job requirement.