As someone who's been reviewing job applications lately, I would say that LinkedIn profiles are of value. It's an additional data point in looking at somebody's job history, even if it's oftentimes redundant. I don't write off recommendations either, provided they're from the right people.
> It's an additional data point in looking at somebody's job history, even if it's oftentimes redundant.
Are you trawling through LinkedIn profiles for candidates? If you use LinkedIn to research current applicants, what information would you find on LinkedIn that is missing from a traditional resume?
Having an online presence is very important as an accompaniment to a CV. I always google job applicants that I receive. If I don't find anything, I am disappointed and tend to file those applicants with the ones where I find their fully open Facebook profile showing what that person did with a stripper at their mates stag party. LinkedIn provides a good fill for the void of wanting to fully lock down your Facebook profile.
Recent uptick. LinkedIn will also "flag" recommendations from being tit-for-tat, meaning, the "savvy" now wait a week or several days before "returning the favor." Ergo, recommendation quality does not mean as much as pre-IPO (IMO). It is also saturated as of late by more spammy recruiters (I'm a recruiter..value out of LinkedIn recruiting has dropped dramatically since IPO due to the flood).
LinkedIn, however, is the "disruptive" potential company in the third-party recruiting space. It will be interesting to see if they do so :)
They made a bit dent in many contingent recruiters introducing pay-for-job posting (versus posting jobs in groups, which is SPAM heavy).
LinkedIn answers and groups, however, has gone the way of mostly spam or, those trying to establish "LinkedIn" expert status' (statusi? :D). I believe many thought that owning a large group would somehow lead to monetization. Currently, groups are only moderated by the group leaders, with LinkedIn more hands-off in the approach, killing nice networking potentials.
As a caveat, day job = LinkedIn recruiting on a 10% basis, whereas off work, I like to actually interact with the groups, Answers (not lately due to poor quality) and connect with interesting people unrelated to technical recruiting.
