This entire notion of a professional social network I believe is flawed in that it is built upon the notion that it would be better to hire someone who has a smaller degree of separation from you, which makes no sense. I do a fair amount of interviewing of programmers, and not a single person I work with could give a damn about anyone's linkedin profile; it's meaningless. I just find the whole idea to be very shallow, vein, and obtrusive.
Linkedin profiles are one way for you to get feedback from people that actually worked with someone.
You might find the guy who seemed awkward and nervous in the interview was always very helpful to the rest of his teammates. You might learn that the guy who seemed to know your entire tech stack is actually notoriously slow in delivering working code.
Should it instead be only a directory of people currently looking for opportunities. People who find work, take themselves off the directory, and people who want work add themselves in?
I think you'll end up with primarily new grads in the site with this policy.
If you're employed and discreetly looking for new work and you 'activate' your profile, now everyone in the office knows you're looking to switch jobs.
has anyone yet found a job on linkedin by flipping some flag? just curious. my experience is that linkedin is a source of spam targets for agencies, but i haven't heard of a single case when people were found/contacted by potential employer directly.
