Has having a LinkedIn account paid off for you? I’m setting up an account just because everyone is and I’m sure it’s a good idea since it’s pretty prevalent. But I’d like to find out just how effective it can be.
I successfully used it to get a job 2 years ago when I was actively looking. The search results are closer to what I need geographically and professionally, and I can see my human connections to that company. And it does work both ways, sometimes I get decent offers out of the blue. Next time I’m actively looking for work, LinkedIn will be my first stop. I’m a mid-career IT professional, so YMMV.
I’ve had job opportunities come my way through it - and my resume on it isn’t even a good one. Nothing I’ve ever followed up on though.
I keep in contact with professional friends. That guy I worked with twelve years ago. Not a facebook friend, but a linked in contact.
I’ve used these people when I have professional questions, sending out a few “hey, do you know anyone who has…?” or “when is your company going to Windows 7?”
So far it hasn’t, but the last time I was at a professional development conference, a lot of other people in my field (freelance book indexing) said that they’ve had work come their way via LinkedIn. For what that’s worth. I’ve only had my profile up for about a month myself.
I’ve had a couple of job opportunities come my way. I didn’t take them, but they were leads nonetheless.
Just today I used it to contact someone I knew 15 years ago. He sent me some inside information and a possible job lead.
I’ve had it for three years, and this is the first real lead I’ve managed to get from it. It has been useful for non-job hunting communications, also.
It is kind of like Facebook for work for me. I haven’t done much with it but people I worked with years ago have found me through the site and I have a small network. I might need to use it in the future for jobs or references. I will give references to anyone in my network. So far no direct benefit but the potential is there and I will help other people if needed.
Thank you for asking the question. I have a Linkedin account, and have no worldly idea what to do with it. I am not now, and will never be, looking for a job. Is that the only purpose? I have 60 or so connections, but if I want to contact any of them, I do it with an email or a phone call. What am I supposed to be doing with Linkedin? So, my answer to the OP is probably obvious: No discernible benefit.
I will get serious about job networking one day, but for now, I just don’t want any more co-workers on facebook.
I have joined a couple of professional groups on there, but mostly I think it will be useful for when I go to conferences and meet people in my field. I also got a notification that Google has a job opening (which also went to everyone on linkedin with my job description) but I thought that was kind of cool.
I think linkedin could use a LOT of improvement. I have joined some professional pages on Facebook that update my news feed when there is interesting industry news, and then everyone can comment, ask questions, and give advice for free. This would be a huge benefit to linkedin. So far it just seems like a reference and hot tip site.
I will hang in and see if it gets more useful.
I’m on it. Not at all active. Not sure if it’s worth anything but I’m not job hunting these days.
I don’t either. How does one use it to open job opportunities?
Update your profile. Get in all your jobs. Treat it like a resume.
Get all your contacts in.
Two things will happen - corporate recruiters will search linked in profiles when they have opportunities. And your old coworkers will say “we have a job for a sys admin…I know a few of those” and drop you a note.
One of the benefits of linked in is that my work contacts tend to have work emails. As they move jobs I lose contact info for them. Linked in gives a central place for me to update my email and the 100 or so contacts I have can find me.
I got my current job through LinkedIn.
So why did you sign up in the first place? 
What Dangerosa said. The recruiters can be kind of a pain in the butt, but it’s the former co-workers who really matter.
In my situation, about six weeks ago I got a LinkedIn message out of the blue from a guy I’d worked for 10 years ago (he was my boss’s boss). His company was looking for someone with my skills, and my employer was about to lay me off, so I sent him my resume. Later that day HR contacted me to set up the interview, and two days after that I had a written offer. On Monday I’ll have been at this job for a month.
Never in a million years did I expect to ever hear from that guy again, let alone ever be contacted by him about a job (not to mention one that I was interested in!). I try to keep my LinkedIn network as broad as possible, though – I have twice as many connections there as I do Facebook friends – and I’d added him as a connection a couple of years back.
It’s kind of funny, actually, since my 2008 master’s thesis was titled “Social Networking Sites as Employment Tools.” 
This.
And it’s free.