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If a job applicant mentioned his SO (or SF I suppose) account, and you saw that they had a rep of X, what baseline of expertise would you associate with that?

Would there be a point at which their rep points are more indicative of their devotion to this particular site than programming knowledge?

Obviously, a diligent manager would dig in to find out how those points were earned before basing a hiring decision on SO rep points, and they are designed to measure community service rather than expertise, but the badges, etc. indicate that it can be used as a shorthand to establish a baseline of knowledge.

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  • Would you hire TheTXI?
    – Troggy
    Commented Aug 12, 2009 at 16:45
  • I sure as hell wouldn't.
    – TheTXI
    Commented Aug 12, 2009 at 17:12

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NONE

Rep has nothing to do with expertise and is only a measure of trust within the SO systems and communities...

This is why employers shouldn't look at it to make hiring decisions (based on trust).

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  • The inclusion of rep count on badges implies that it has some real-world meaning. It may not be much, but it's not zero.
    – JohnMcG
    Commented Aug 12, 2009 at 16:49
  • @JohnMcG, tell me then, how much is mine worth? If it has value, I'll take some of the reward now... Seriously, it is completely meaning less on its own merit. You need to look at numbers of questions and answers, and actual content, not some arbitrary pointless badge and rep score.
    – RSolberg
    Commented Aug 13, 2009 at 0:29
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I'd think this guy knows enough about programming to know where to go to give and get help. So that's a plus. But no thoughts on experience yet. I would go read his questions and answers. Probably the top 10 or so top-voted, and the bottom 20 or so low-voted. Then I'd start forming an opinion.

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...what baseline of expertise would you associate with that?

None whatsoever.

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