
Ask HN: Is it important to have accounts on SO/GH for Software Engineers? - _robert_
I&#x27;m curious, is it advantage or disadvantage to have accounts on StackOverflow&#x2F;GitHub for Software Engineers? Or more importantly public speaking?<p>For instance, I have more than the 55k rating on SO and I contribute several open source projects, some of them have more than 40k starts and relate to one of top IT company.<p>Last year I received a couple suggestions to work on short-term &quot;freelance&quot; projects from StackOverflow&#x2F;GitHub sites. So, seems that StackOverflow&#x2F;GitHub accounts don&#x27;t give any advantages and LinkedIn works much better.<p>Also, I noticed that CV which includes SO&#x2F;GH links doesn&#x27;t increase chances to get a response (even response, and I&#x27;m not talking about job offers) from HR. I&#x27;m not located in the USA., maybe SO&#x2F;GH accounts only useful for the USA, however, statics says that to be involved in open source doesn&#x27;t give any advantages.
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cimmanom
It depends a lot on what your career goals are. Many startups seem to care
about Github activity a lot. Corporations and less trend-seeeking small
businesses less so. Though I’m sure companies exist that take StackOverflow
activity into account, I’ve yet to encounter one.

My impression is that participation on these sites only matters if you’re an
outlier, and that it mostly gets you incoming inquiries rather than helping to
have on a resume.

If you’re the creator or major contributor to a well known open source
project, that will absolutely open doors for you at certain companies that use
that project.

Otherwise, participate in SO or put code on Github if it’s something you enjoy
doing. But don’t force yourself to because you think it’ll have a major career
impact, because chances are it won’t.

