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Do you have any evidence (anecdotal or empirical) that people actually hire based on StackOverflow rankings? I'm sure it's happened in a few cases, but it seems

Do you have any evidence (anecdotal or empirical) that people actually hire based on StackOverflow rankings? I'm sure it's happened in a few cases, but it seems backwards to me. If somebody came into an interview talking about their high SO rank or Reddit karma, I'd wonder if they would actually be focused on their work. To me, hobbies and online activity aren't really credentials unless you've really built a strong personal brand that directly relates to your job.

dvt 7y ago
Employers that don't look at GitHub and Stack Overflow activity when hiring are being silly. Unfortunately, it's the status quo. I mean, I actually wrote a book published by Apress that rarely gets brought up in interviews.
- shantly 7y ago
  I once interviewed a guy who listed an academic paper on his résumé. I skimmed the paper, and asked him a soft question about it in the interview (I was just curious about some non-essential detail). He looked surprised said no-one had ever mentioned it before (and answered my question just fine, of course).
- jonathankoren 7y ago
  As a hiring manager, I rarely look at GitHub and never look at Stack Overflow or Kaggle, or whatever. All these tell me is that you don’t have any hobbies outside of coding. As for GitHub in particular, it let’s me know if your project was something substantial, or merely an exercise for a class. GitHub, your book, all that stuff takes time and effort to read, and quite frankly it isn’t worth it. You’re still going to need to go through the interview process so I can figure out if you’re competent. Reading some 1000 line random GitHub repo is hard, and it’s just not worth it.
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- turk73 7y ago
  Too bad my company's private Github isn't visible to you because if you looked at my public one you would probably be disappointed even though I have been forcing myself to add code examples to it just to show some external effort. Internally, I'm a machine. Also, the problem I had being an SO contributor is that my answers would get downvoted months or years later not because they were incorrect at the time I posted but well along after versions and techniques changed. That's just assholic at it happened a number of times. Thanks, whoever did those drive-by downvotes, you're a complete ass and drove me from wanting to contribute at all.
pmjordan 7y ago
I don't know about employment, but Stack Overflow has become one of the main lead gens for our 2-person software development consultancy. I monitor the tags that are relevant to our niche and try to answer any sensible questions that come along. (And try to help out people with less sensible questions where I can too.) This presumably only works if you you cover some obscure-ish, deeply technical niches, not for more run-of-the-mill stuff. If your clients are non-technical, they won't find you on Stack Overflow. If your clients are companies that develop software themselves but need specialist skills for a project, it can work. Note that I don't think my actual SO score[1] is in any way of importance. I suspect it's more important that: - The answers are actually well written, in-depth and helpful. - I have a reasonably recogniseable avatar image. I have been told by eventual clients that they kept running into my SO answers while they were trying to solve their problem themselves. Presumably this pattern is much more noticeable if there is a human face staring back at them from the bottom of the answer. - Friendly comment exchanges probably help. Being an arse in SO comments probably won't help your chances of being hired by the person who asked the question or had the same problem and found your answer via a web search. [1] At around 14000, my reputation score puts me in the top 3%, but if the stats in the article are correct, that doesn't even put me in the top third of the 8% of many-question-answerers. (I have answered 518 questions.) Mind you, my mean answer score is probably about 2, with the median squarely at 1; niche topics mean few people read my answer, and even fewer upvote them. My only gold badge is for voting on 600 questions, but I have bronze badges coming out of my ears.
cassianoleal 7y ago
I get loads of recruiter's messages via SO. In general they are of much higher quality (as in, the person actually read about me and offered an interview because of what they saw) than other sources. Perhaps ironically, even LinkedIn is a place where I receive a lot of spam recruitment messages.
trianglem 7y ago
I think it makes no sense comparing SO ranking to Reddit karma (unless maybe you're applying to a social coordinator position). SO rankings generally imply tangible useful knowledge in the technical space.
rossdavidh 7y ago
So, the evidence I have (anecdotal) is not so much that people actually are hiring, as that people are using SO to try to get leads. Whether or not that actually works, I don't know, but the competition for high rank relative to others undercuts the cooperative spirit.
dkarbayev 7y ago
One of my previous employers reached out to me on StackOverflow, telling me that my profile got them interested in me. I went through their interview process and accepted their offer. The project turned out to be quite interesting and working for them was one of the most positive experiences I had.
SnarkAsh 7y ago
FWIW every job I've had in my 7-year career came from connections that stated though Stack Overflow. No one's hiring on the basis of reputation score, but many employers do reach out to users who have repeatedly demonstrated their technical communication and knowledge.

dvt 7y ago

Employers that don't look at GitHub and Stack Overflow activity when hiring are being silly. Unfortunately, it's the status quo. I mean, I actually wrote a book published by Apress that rarely gets brought up in interviews.

shantly 7y ago
I once interviewed a guy who listed an academic paper on his résumé. I skimmed the paper, and asked him a soft question about it in the interview (I was just curious about some non-essential detail). He looked surprised said no-one had ever mentioned it before (and answered my question just fine, of course).
jonathankoren 7y ago
As a hiring manager, I rarely look at GitHub and never look at Stack Overflow or Kaggle, or whatever. All these tell me is that you don’t have any hobbies outside of coding. As for GitHub in particular, it let’s me know if your project was something substantial, or merely an exercise for a class. GitHub, your book, all that stuff takes time and effort to read, and quite frankly it isn’t worth it. You’re still going to need to go through the interview process so I can figure out if you’re competent. Reading some 1000 line random GitHub repo is hard, and it’s just not worth it.
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turk73 7y ago
Too bad my company's private Github isn't visible to you because if you looked at my public one you would probably be disappointed even though I have been forcing myself to add code examples to it just to show some external effort. Internally, I'm a machine. Also, the problem I had being an SO contributor is that my answers would get downvoted months or years later not because they were incorrect at the time I posted but well along after versions and techniques changed. That's just assholic at it happened a number of times. Thanks, whoever did those drive-by downvotes, you're a complete ass and drove me from wanting to contribute at all.

pmjordan 7y ago

I don't know about employment, but Stack Overflow has become one of the main lead gens for our 2-person software development consultancy. I monitor the tags that are relevant to our niche and try to answer any sensible questions that come along. (And try to help out people with less sensible questions where I can too.) This presumably only works if you you cover some obscure-ish, deeply technical niches, not for more run-of-the-mill stuff. If your clients are non-technical, they won't find you on Stack Overflow. If your clients are companies that develop software themselves but need specialist skills for a project, it can work. Note that I don't think my actual SO score[1] is in any way of importance. I suspect it's more important that: - The answers are actually well written, in-depth and helpful. - I have a reasonably recogniseable avatar image. I have been told by eventual clients that they kept running into my SO answers while they were trying to solve their problem themselves. Presumably this pattern is much more noticeable if there is a human face staring back at them from the bottom of the answer. - Friendly comment exchanges probably help. Being an arse in SO comments probably won't help your chances of being hired by the person who asked the question or had the same problem and found your answer via a web search. [1] At around 14000, my reputation score puts me in the top 3%, but if the stats in the article are correct, that doesn't even put me in the top third of the 8% of many-question-answerers. (I have answered 518 questions.) Mind you, my mean answer score is probably about 2, with the median squarely at 1; niche topics mean few people read my answer, and even fewer upvote them. My only gold badge is for voting on 600 questions, but I have bronze badges coming out of my ears.

cassianoleal 7y ago

I get loads of recruiter's messages via SO. In general they are of much higher quality (as in, the person actually read about me and offered an interview because of what they saw) than other sources. Perhaps ironically, even LinkedIn is a place where I receive a lot of spam recruitment messages.

trianglem 7y ago

I think it makes no sense comparing SO ranking to Reddit karma (unless maybe you're applying to a social coordinator position). SO rankings generally imply tangible useful knowledge in the technical space.

rossdavidh 7y ago

So, the evidence I have (anecdotal) is not so much that people actually are hiring, as that people are using SO to try to get leads. Whether or not that actually works, I don't know, but the competition for high rank relative to others undercuts the cooperative spirit.

dkarbayev 7y ago

One of my previous employers reached out to me on StackOverflow, telling me that my profile got them interested in me. I went through their interview process and accepted their offer. The project turned out to be quite interesting and working for them was one of the most positive experiences I had.

SnarkAsh 7y ago

FWIW every job I've had in my 7-year career came from connections that stated though Stack Overflow. No one's hiring on the basis of reputation score, but many employers do reach out to users who have repeatedly demonstrated their technical communication and knowledge.