Recruiting. It's huge.

Also just B2B sales in general. Anything that makes getting in touch with decision makers easier is basically a money faucet.

And isn't Linkedin the only network who got people to pay subscriptions? That's extremely interesting for MS.

On demographics alone, though, the deal doesn't seem to make sense.

I read this in Trump's voice.

Recruiting on LinkedIn is huge. Very, very, very big. This is really a not dumb deal by Microsoft, believe me. I don't know but I've heard from hundreds of people who've told me this is a huge move. It will be amazing.

It seems like LinkedIn is more the butt of jokes now than in its heyday when everyone was advised to get on it. Heyday being 2011-ish? Or is there a large number of C-level type people who went to elite colleges and are SV VCs who use it a lot, who are just out of my social league?

In my circles (software dev in europe) everyone is on LinkedIn and a LOT of recruiting goes through it. I don't like it at all, but it is the status quo for recruiting in many countries.

IT generally, yes. anything else - i have not met anybody who actually uses it. most/all have a basic, outdated profile, didn't log there for 3 years, and 0 activity. job search is done in other ways

I think it being the butt of jokes could be isolated to the tech crowd. You're not going to find much value and definitely be more critical of it if you aren't hurting for employment opportunities.

I'm curious - what do people use now to find jobs? I'm still relying pretty heavily on LinkedIn for recruiters to contact me.

No, people at all levels in engineering and manufacturing use it. It's odd for me to search for a coworker or potential employer and not find them, although some just have an empty profile.

LinkedIn is basically Facebook for white collar people.

It has a news feed, friends, events etc. But also has a jobs section. Given how ubiquitous it is every recruiter and sales guy is on there trying to push stuff.

I think Facebook is the Facebook for white collar people. I do know people who use Linkedin heavily, but it's a separate thing (personal vs professional networks).

Events is deeply broken though

LinkedIn is Monster+Facebook on steroids.

Facebook for employees; not just recruiting, but sales and B2B generally.