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 tha

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.