Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?

programmers.stackexchange.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 31 posts

Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?

#11

Post by city41 »

AlexC04 wrote: post #2

I read the article a while back by the chap who got headhunted based solely on his Stack rep. It made me think "heck. I'd best get started on that". So I made a conscious effort to answer questions. I loaded up the questions list and ... nothing. Not an effing thing. All these questions from such a broad base of so many topics. I didn't know the answer to anything. F I thought. Then a little later I asked a question…

Yes but anyone can look at your profile and see your rep was earned via asking instead of answering. Whether SO rep is relevant or not is debatable, but if it is, rep earned by answering is almost certainly more valuable.

Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?

#12

Post by retube »

I doubt it would harm you. I certainly don't expect to get headhunted through SO (my score is low 4-digits), but I will be putting the link on my CV - as I probably will my NH profile - I don't have any other online presence (no fb, no blog, no github, no li). And although my score isn't super-high, I don't spend a lot of time on the site. I'll ask a question from time to time, and a couple of times a week see if there's anything I can answer. Hopefully my profile will give a reasonable overview of my general competence.

Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?

#15

Post by troels »

vibragiel wrote: post #5
troels wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a CV, yes. From an interview? Maybe I'm just naïve.

How thorough would an interview need to be to match thousands of thumbs ups by thousands of tech-savvy (to say the least) people?

OK, point taken. But it's very different kinds of information that you can pick up in an interview vs. some kind of metric (Be it SO score or diplomas).

Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?

#16

Post by eru »

city41 wrote: post #11
AlexC04 wrote: post #2

I read the article a while back by the chap who got headhunted based solely on his Stack rep. It made me think "heck. I'd best get started on that". So I made a conscious effort to answer questions. I loaded up the questions list and ... nothing. Not an effing thing. All these questions from such a broad base of so many topics. I didn't know the answer to anything. F I thought. Then a little later I asked a question…

Yes but anyone can look at your profile and see your rep was earned via asking instead of answering. Whether SO rep is relevant or not is debatable, but if it is, rep earned by answering is almost certainly more valuable.

Depends on what your employer asks for. Some might rather employ somebody who knows how to harvest free labour off the internet, rather than `waste' their time solving other people's problems for free.

Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?

#17

Post by tomafro »

I wouldn't be swayed either way by a high Stack Overflow rating.

That said, asking and answering technical questions can be really beneficial. It's much harder to write about something clearly than some people realise, and a great skill to develop.

Also, rather than the whole reputation, I might take interest in particular answers: a single solid answer to a difficult question demonstrates a lot more than many point scoring answers to easier ones.

Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?

#18

Post by daeken »

Encosia wrote: post #7

Data point: As someone with a five-figure Stack Overflow reputation, I have received zero (0) job offers related to my Stack Overflow account.

I also have a five-figure rep on SO and haven't received any job offers. However, I was just on the hunt for a new job a few weeks ago, and I'm fairly confident that my rep did help me get in the door in certain situations. No way to actually know for sure, but it was mentioned.

Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?

#19

Post by TorKlingberg »

ig1 wrote: post #8

What gets you headhunted is posting intelligent answers to tech questions on Linkedin Answers. Because that's where the HR people and recruiters hangout.

But do they read tech questions? Is it worth their time trawling for random technical people there? Even for recruiters outside the San Francisco area?

Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?

#20

Post by radioactive21 »

It would be sad to see someone get a job solely on his/her Stack Overflow reputation, but I wouldn't object to it helping you get an edge over other candidates.

If I was an employer looking at a candidate, obviously I am more concern about the quality of each answer than the quantity of each answer.

Post reply on HN