3 ms·
no one is advocating making a hiring decision based on 2 numbers. but they can show involvement and engagement in an online community, which can be valuable to
by billclerico 16y ago
no one is advocating making a hiring decision based on 2 numbers. but they can show involvement and engagement in an online community, which can be valuable to a startup
- tjmaxal 16y agoWhy? I'd rather have an employee who was the best at the job I need them for than an employee who is good at tweeting.
- notauser 16y agoAll other things being equal I'd rather have an employee who had a personal following of the right kind. This is because it shows: - They care enough about what they do to do it in their off hours. - They do it well enough to gather some respect. - "Marketing" is much easier, and much less distasteful, when it can be done by and to people who respect each other about things they genuinely like. And start ups need all the marketing help they can get. There are only a few people out there who have skill sets that are so unique that there isn't someone just like them who also has a valuable on-line reputation. I'm certainly not a special snowflake, and I'm a domain expert in three fields. I meet people who are better than me all the time. Are you sure you are one of the ~500 people in the world who are so good that only their specialist knowledge matters? Or should you think that every asset you can bring, no matter how seemingly unrelated to your job description, adds something to a start up that may help them succeed.
- karzeem 16y agoAnother way of putting it is that while good hackers aren't necessarily likely to have high karma scores, a high karma score does predict better-than-average hacking skills. No idea if that's true, but that's the hypothesis.
- Locke1689 16y agoActually, I'd argue that a high karma score predicts a higher level of writing skill. In that vein, I would argue that writing skill is almost as important as hacking skill in most jobs, startups included. I believe PG and others have said something about this but writing skill allows you to accurately convey your own ambitions and competence to the people who will matter.