Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?
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Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?
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Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?
#2I 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 that I needed an answer to... and I got points. Lots of them. And "badges". And I voted on an answer - more points and badges.
So I thought WOW I can ask my way up to 100k reputation! Fells a little like cheating doesn't it?
Then I reconsidered. Actually the 100,000 questions would be just as valuable as proof of skill, since it's all contributing to your 10,000 hours of practise (See Malcom Gladwell) - furthermore - as you contribute questions, you help build the encyclopedia of knowledge and someone else might find your answer in their "first go".
I think it's really neat that Stack is this odd sort of community where it's virtually impossible to give more than you get from it but simply by participating, even as a supplicant, you contribute to the greater good.
Just last night for example I learned about using chrome for profiling in Javascript. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4240416/reverse-engineeri... and it was good :)
Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?
#3Well it can't hurt.
Of course, you can't fully describe a person by just a number. It's theoretically possible that a highly reputed Stack Overflow user could be an awful programmer at work, but I'm sure that the intersection of "highly reputed SO users" and "people you'd regret to hire for a programmer position" is a very tiny set.
I think that number contains much more significant information for that kind of position than whatever you could extract from a CV or an interview.
Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?
#4Well it can't hurt. Of course, you can't fully describe a person by just a number. It's theoretically possible that a highly reputed Stack Overflow user could be an awful programmer at work, but I'm sure that the intersection of "highly reputed SO users" and "people you'd regret to hire for a programmer position" is a very tiny set. I think that number contains much more significant information for that kind of posit…
From a CV, yes. From an interview?
Maybe I'm just naïve.
Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?
#5Well it can't hurt. Of course, you can't fully describe a person by just a number. It's theoretically possible that a highly reputed Stack Overflow user could be an awful programmer at work, but I'm sure that the intersection of "highly reputed SO users" and "people you'd regret to hire for a programmer position" is a very tiny set. I think that number contains much more significant information for that kind of posit…
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?
Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?
#6Well it can't hurt. Of course, you can't fully describe a person by just a number. It's theoretically possible that a highly reputed Stack Overflow user could be an awful programmer at work, but I'm sure that the intersection of "highly reputed SO users" and "people you'd regret to hire for a programmer position" is a very tiny set. I think that number contains much more significant information for that kind of posit…
Well it can't hurt.
Sure it can, if I think you are more invested in your badge-earning game mechanics than in the money-earning game-mechanics for which I pay you.
Of course, the chances that I review your SO score with this mindset seem relatively low, since in order to cover this possibility, I also need to check out your GamerTag, gear score, and Wikipedia edit history.
Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?
#7Data point: As someone with a five-figure Stack Overflow reputation, I have received zero (0) job offers related to my Stack Overflow account.
Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?
#8What gets you headhunted is posting intelligent answers to tech questions on Linkedin Answers. Because that's where the HR people and recruiters hangout.
Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?
#9Please don't forget that your real reputation is what definitely gets you a great job.
"Hey bossman, my great friend XXX, who I worked with at YYY, is getting bored over there. He's a great programmer and would be a great fit for our team and the infrastructure position we have open."
And bossman will definitely give him an interview and massive bonus points for the personal recommendation and relationship, and wisely make him a better offer than some stranger that comes in from StackOverflow or GitHub.
This cuts both ways.
As an engineer, you want a job that a colleague recommends to you, far before some random posting you see on StackOverflow Careers.
Re: Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?
#10I don't think it helps at all, maybe a little bit of publicity but I think if that is your goal, you may be better served to place efforts elsewhere. I would wager posting on HN has better odds of landing you a job due to exposure than Stack Overflow. In the end networking is the golden rule for finding employment. HN or Stack Overflow can be used to that end, you just have to remember to foster relationships in the community. Doing so will pay far more dividends that pure knowledge displays.