I could have at least four times the amount of reputation that I have on Stack Overflow if I was interested more in reputation than learning something. I currently have a little over 14,000 points.
Initially, Stack Overflow promised me that most features of the site would be unlocked once I managed to earn 10,000 reputation points. That became a goal, but not my primary motivation for using the site. What programmer doesn't like a challenge?
My primary language is C and I've got quite a bit of experience at using it. However, seven out of ten times that I found an interesting question I could answer, someone else had answered it in a way that made me think a little differently about the problem at hand. I have no issue with citing those users in this answer:
.. Just to name a few. I'm sure I left some people out. I could have answered many of the same questions that they answered while earning more reputation, but what is the use of regurgitating the same answer while not really adding anything? I get enough of that watching the nightly news after spending an hour with my browser. What does that do for this thing that I (and many other self taught hackers) have grown to really appreciate? Would it not be better to just cast my votes to make something really helpful rise to the top and add comments or edit when you see someone has made a mistake?
Once in a while I happen upon an interesting question that doesn't have an answer conveying the same knowledge or experience that I can provide. When that happens, I provide an answer. I'm also known to up-vote answers that provide details that I omitted while answering the same question.
Well, at least I used to do that, lately I've been rather busy with this thing we call flags. I'm quite content with that, I'm able to help this thing I really care about quite a bit more after being elected.
Stack Overflow has never been, nor will it be about the number next to my name. In fact, the answers I'm most proud of received less votes than the answers I wrote in five minutes. The people that see Stack Overflow as some kind of competitive sport are completely missing the point, at least in my opinion.
And then, there are just users that have so much knowledge to share that it more or less leaks out of them, and we're grateful to have them here. But, as far as I know, those people aren't looking for jobs.