I have gotten lots of recruiter emails saying they saw my LinkedIn profile, which is kinda funny, since it doesn't exist.
Could just be the kinds of jobs I'm interested in.
I personally think that for software dev at least, making connections via Twitter or via friends is a better way to go for the first internship, but everyone has different paths to success :)
"Can't risk" is interesting, you could say that about anything you could put on your resume if there's a chance it helps, but something like LinkedIn seems just redundant with your resume's content.
> Plus every career counselor I've seen has suggested it.
They're probably right, if your goal is to get a job as a career counselor.
If you are going to use it for a job hunt, then use it aggressively. Message/cold-call people that you want to work for, send them a cover letter and CV, ask to talk off LI and on the phone/over-coffee asap. Cold-emailing people from a company directory is kinda the same thing here. The 'rules' for Tinder aren't that far off for LI, sad as that is.
Outside of a job hunt that you're preforming, yeah, it's mostly recruiter spam. The feed is practically useless in my experience, but I am not a power user.
All that said, networking is that key to getting hired.
So people definitely use it, even if it isn't on your resume.