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Ask HN: I just got my Stackoverflow Python gold badge - is it worth anything?
OK, I know this probably amounts to a (not-so-)humblebrag, but I've been paying close attention to my stats on Stackoverflow, I'm in the top 3% overall in terms of rep. And this weekend, I finally achieved the Python gold badge (my area of focus). It was hard to get, took a long time, and I benefited from strong English skills and research skills as well as my Python and programming skills.
I mentioned it to my boss this morning, also a technical type, he told me that and $3 would buy me a cup of coffee. (He's a good guy and I like him.) I nodded amiably, and as non-defensively as I could, said, "Well, some select for it." But who really does? It may get my foot in the door in some situations, and it might be considered a feather in the cap for my organization, but it's certainly not my key to the top tech job at a fortune 500. I have to earn that kind credibility in other ways.
But it's something, right? It's an achievement, and it signals that I have the ability to reach goals. That says I'm worth something, doesn't it? And it probably has some economic value too, doesn't it? How would I quantify that? That's my main question.
I'm probably asking to be smacked down here, but that's a risk I'm willing to take. I've seen a sort of anti-Stackoverflow current before, but you can't deny that it helps people, and (I'll hedge with "virtually") all of us technical types use it at least as a supplement to documentation and reading the source, and I'll brashly assert that many of us use it as a first resort thanks to Google. And if I've helped people, that makes me feel really good, so I do have a lot of respect for Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood, and I've wanted, for a while now, to make a meaningful contribution to a resource that has helped me so much. I'm now starting to feel like I really have. To me, the economic question is one way of measuring that contribution.
Evidence: http://stackoverflow.com/help/badges/51/python?userid=541136
Addendum, gaius said: "I'm afraid your boss was right. It may even be a negative, as it paints you as someone with a lot of free time."
My response (from below): Well it certainly could do that. If it does, I can always chalk it up to sour grapes. But I think I have a good answer to that, if I encounter it in question form.
I also go to a lot of tech meetups and give tech talks. I'm ten-years married with no kids. I can spend my time how I choose. Only I have something to show for all of my evenings over people who only play games or read click-bait. I want children, eventually, but I'm not ready yet. I'd also like another graduate degree, and I'd like even more experiences in finance, as now I've only been a financial advisor and worked in risk data and architecture.
I had over 150 answers on tax and retirement planning on all-experts.com with strong ratings, and they've deleted that material because it's out of date, and now I just have a line on my old resume (it's not even in my current one). I like that much of my material will not be dated as quickly on Stackoverflow.
- lbotos 12y agoThe most important thing you've gained is not recognition of those skills but the skills themselves. Use those to show whomever you need what you are capable of.
- aaronchall 12y agoIt's true, answering all of those questions has greatly improved my skills in a demonstrable way, but it also signals that I have those skills, which means I probably won't be asked to demonstrate them in situations where others would. It could be used as a heuristic that at least gets me a free pass not to take the "can he code fizz-buzz" question. Then the question is, "can he architect a continuous integration system in a maintainable sort of way?"
- jared314 12y ago> which means I probably won't be asked to demonstrate them in situations where others would. I have yet to meet anyone who would take internet points as IRL credibility / experience (to my disappointment).
- geofft 12y agoIf you're in the top 3% of Python users on SO, Fizzbuzz should take you no more than, so optimizing against that doesn't seem particularly useful. And it feels to me like being able to cogently answer questions on StackOverflow isn't a skill that's necessarily correlated with architecting big systems. The value I'd imagine you have, out of this skillset, is being able to explain your code to other developers, give good code reviews, figure out new systems, etc. If it were me, I'd mention it on my resume and give it some wording in the hopes that an interviewer will ask me questions along those lines and ask me to explain some code and I'll do a good job of it. But that would also be selecting for jobs where my work does involve a lot of working with other coders and doing code review, and not speak very much to my ability to do architecture and design review. (Or maybe I have the wrong impression of what all this is about, and you should take me as an example of a naive interviewer and correct for that. :) )
- 12y ago