This week’s Web site of the week, LinkedIn, is a grown-up version of MySpace. Users can create a profile listing their work experience, activities, awards and connections. Basically, it is an on-line résumé.

Once you get your profile set up, invite your friends. One of the more useful functions of this site - connections - allows you to network. Your connections can also “recommend” you, leaving a positive comment about the work you did while in a certain position. For example, your former manager can leave a comment like, “Jane Doe was very hard-working and a team player while interning with us here at XZY Inc. etc.”

Once you get a few recommendations and positions, you can include the URL to your profile (www.linkedin.com/in/yourname) in your e-mail signatures to prospective employers.

But LinkedIn is more than just a grown-up MySpace; it also offers services similar to www.monster.com. Employers can search for prospective employees and you can, in turn, search for positions you desire. If you should ever need any manner of service from graphic design to dentistry to legal advice, LinkedIn has a directory of these and many more services connecting you to users who have been recommended by others.

For freshman, this site may seem a bit useless and it probably is. But for those of us preparing to graduate and seek some type of employment, LinkedIn can be a part of your strategy to make yourself marketable. Having your own Web site is great, but a LinkedIn profile is almost as good, and besides ... it’s free. This one is definitely worth checking out.