Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?

Question

In a post, Joel Spolsky mentioned that 5 digit Stack Overflow reputation can help you to earn a job paying $100k+. How much of that is real?

Would anyone like to share their success in getting a high paid job by virtue of their reputations on Stack Exchange sites?

I read somewhere that, a person got an interview offer from Google because a recruiter found his Stack Overflow reputation to be impressive. Anyone else with similar stories?

Answer 1

IMHO: Depends on what Q&A's you contributed on SO to earn a 5-digit rep. If the Q&A's that earned you a 5-digit rep are related to a jobs requirements which is in high demand, then most likely it will help you get the $100K+ job, but its just one of many factors (technical know-how and problem-solving) but what about the rest of the ingridients that go into being hired?

Answer 2

High reputation on SO might get you into the hiring process, might even give you small bonus, but that's it. In my experience, actually gives you less, than let's say participation in groups on LinkedIn (note, that there is no reputation system there).

The problem with SO rep is, that it does not necessarily reflect much. There are few types of very high scoring answers, that have nothing to do with actual skills:

• obvious answer to obvious question posted few seconds faster, then 10 other identical answers;
• popular answer to argumentative question, which should be community wiki, but was posted by a newbie;
• c'n'p answers to duplicate questions;
• sarcastic answers to really stupid questions;

Thus just the number without actually looking at the answers is meaningless.

Answer 3

John skeet got a job in Google as well, he has a good score on Stack Overflow.