The conventional wisdom for getting job leads as a new grad and early career is to go to job fair, have a portfolio and open a LinkedIn account. These things allow the prospective employers to see your work or to reach out to you.
The experienced folks don't necessarily attend in-person events, may not keep their LinkedIn profile up-to-date and may not have a website at all. Some don't event have LinkedIn at all. They could be very choosy for in-person events because they take time out of their day: Many have family commitment. They have established their (offline) reputation to the point that their work speaks for itself.
My goal is to have the least amount of info out in public when possible: Social networks for offline friends, family and close colleagues only. Somehow I don't feel that I'm at a point in my career that I can ditch all my online presence and still get job leads.
The only thing I do on LinkedIn is occasionally update my job title, if I get a promotion. I have a GitHub account, but there is nothing of value there and almost no activity. I’ve dabbled in blogging, but nothing if ever point anyone to.
If having a strong online brand is required for getting a new job, I just won’t get a new job I guess. Lucky for me, my old manager has told me I have a standing offer wherever he is working, if I ever want to leave where I’m currently at. I’ve had a couple other former co-workers reach out as well. I think those would be the ways I go after a new job at this point.
I don’t think it’s realistic for companies to expect everyone have all that stuff online. I’ve only seen that from one person we’ve hired. He had a fancy website as his resume, a bunch of projects on there, and maybe a blog. It honestly didn’t factor into the hiring discussion much, if at all. He was also no better than any of the other hires who didn’t have any of that stuff.
Even with my anemic online presence, I’ve had a couple FAANGs reach out looking to bring me in for interviews. One seemed like I scam, so I ignored it. It wasn’t, someone else on my team got the same message, replied, and works there now. The other I replied to and spoke with the recruiter, but I wasn’t willing to relocate, so we ended talks there.