In my experience, it doesn't help in terms of interviews/hiring. It's often rewarding on its own right, but you're not missing out on jobs, anyway.
For context, I have a (now inactive) stackoverflow account with ~250,000 reputation. For a long time, I was the top answerer for many tags in the scientific python ecosystem (e.g. matplotlib, scipy, briefly top for numpy as well) and was in the top 10 for python as a whole at the time (i.e. showed up on the "top answers" page).
I was really proud of that once, and spent awhile going from "this is a fun distraction" to "oh, this could get me a job and help me switch careers, I should focus on it".
Not trying to brag there, just trying to put it in perspective. My SO track record was significant enough, particularly ~5 years ago when I was actively applying, that I really thought it would help me get jobs or at least give me an edge. It didn't.
I've never had my stackoverflow stuff asked about or mentioned in an interview before by the person interviewing. The couple of times I've incidentally brought it up during an interview (as an example of a specific problem they were asking about or as an example of teaching/training/communication), it went over as a lead balloon.
My OSS contributions (which are slim and were all a long time ago) have opened doors, but stackoverflow hasn't, at least that I know of.
I'm not saying it's not rewarding or that I regret it, just that, at least for me, it didn't seem to help in terms of job opportunities, and at the time, I was a bit disappointed in that.
As #1 (now #2) on ServerFault.com for many years, it opened a lot of doors for me as a consultant. I could reference my reputation as a "body of work" and it carried a lot of weight. Most employers, staff, recruiters are familiar with the sites, and it made things relatable.
For context, I have a (now inactive) stackoverflow account with ~250,000 reputation. For a long time, I was the top answerer for many tags in the scientific python ecosystem (e.g. matplotlib, scipy, briefly top for numpy as well) and was in the top 10 for python as a whole at the time (i.e. showed up on the "top answers" page).
I was really proud of that once, and spent awhile going from "this is a fun distraction" to "oh, this could get me a job and help me switch careers, I should focus on it".
Not trying to brag there, just trying to put it in perspective. My SO track record was significant enough, particularly ~5 years ago when I was actively applying, that I really thought it would help me get jobs or at least give me an edge. It didn't.
I've never had my stackoverflow stuff asked about or mentioned in an interview before by the person interviewing. The couple of times I've incidentally brought it up during an interview (as an example of a specific problem they were asking about or as an example of teaching/training/communication), it went over as a lead balloon.
My OSS contributions (which are slim and were all a long time ago) have opened doors, but stackoverflow hasn't, at least that I know of.
I'm not saying it's not rewarding or that I regret it, just that, at least for me, it didn't seem to help in terms of job opportunities, and at the time, I was a bit disappointed in that.