I liked Guy Kawasaki’s post on his blog How to Change the World about how to find a job using LinkedIn. I keep referring to it in many conversations I’m having with friends who have lost their jobs and trying to pick up the pieces.
I personally use LinkedIn a lot for networking and opening doors. I think you get out of it what you put in – make the effort to do a detailed profile so people can search and find you, keep it up to date and link up with others. I find myself using Linked-in a lot more than Facebook for my professional work. When I finally made the commitment to really use it a year or so ago , I used the LinkedIn tools to upload my contact database and scan my e-mails for contacts which provided the fastest way to get going and link with others.
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2009/02/10-ways-to-use.html
Another good resource to use is the quarterly publication of venture funded companies put out by VentureOne and the San Jose Mercury News. This one lists all the startups in the Bay Area that got funding in Q4, how much, what sector they are in and which VCs did the round. These startups secured funding so are likely hiring but may not be listing job openings so you might use Linked-in to connect with a VC that funded them or an executive in the company in your area of expertise.
http://www.mercurynews.com/vcsurvey
The Q4 fundings are here:
http://www.bayareanewsgroup.com/multimedia/mn/biz/specialreport/vcchart_q42008.htm
