At least in my personal case, I think it helped accelerate things a bit. I'm originally from Germany, so my professional network I developed while being a stud

At least in my personal case, I think it helped accelerate things a bit. I'm originally from Germany, so my professional network I developed while being a student turned almost useless after moving to the US. I could have probably tried to establish a bit of an online presence through e.g. open-source work, but that tends to be a lot more time-intensive compared to just adding a few keywords about what I like and can do and a bit waiting :)