Would a high Stack Exchange rep make a difference in a job interview?

Question

I am a PhD student in mathematics going into graph theory. I hope to either do a post-doc or (hopefully!) get a tenure-track position at a research-oriented university after graduation. I don't have a super high Math SE reputation, but it has been steadily increasing from answering questions. (I have only asked a few, but I answer a lot.)

While I don't think it would be a good idea to put my Math SE reputation on a CV (or am I wrong?) I could potentially see myself mentioning SE at an interview. While I know answering questions on Math SE isn't anything like publishing original research, I think it shows a dedication to mathematics and teaching.

What I want to know (hopefully from people who do interviews, but all answers are welcome) is if something like that would ever make a difference. (Especially if it would be frowned upon similar to having trivial papers on your CV.)

Note: answering questions on Math SE is something I do in my leisure time or times when I cannot work on my course work/research such as while I am on my daily bus ride to campus, so I don't need to see answers that say "spending the time studying/researching would be a better use of your time".

My main concern is in an interview setting. Only if you have reason to believe that it would be good to put on a CV am I interested in that as I already had a feeling that it would not be well suited for a CV.

Answer 1

I have seen Math.SE and MathOverflow activities mentioned by both grad students and faculty in connection with various applications and promotion-related materials. I don't see this as anything to scoff at; personally I find it intriguing and consider looking up someone's SE profile(s) a great way to get some insight into their mathematical personality (note that there can be a potential downside if said personality turns out to be uninteresting or unimpressive). With that said, I think this is only worth mentioning on your CV if it represents a major activity, say if you have been active for at least 1-2 years and have dozens of answers including a good number of highly voted ones. I wouldn't specify the reputation points as that seems like a silly thing to (admit to :-) ) be concerned about. And there can be a better place to mention it, e.g., in a research/teaching/personal statement.

As for mentioning this in an interview, like many other things this can be a good idea if done tactfully (in a no-big-deal, casual sort of way that shows a sense of proportion), or a horrible idea if done untactfully (saying it and expecting fireworks or a round of applause).

Finally, I wanted to mention that I noticed from questions such as this one that there is a common belief in the Grand Principle that for academic (and specifically math) jobs one should hide any information about oneself that attests to one being interested in anything other than doing math research all day, every day, and that any decision about what to put on one's CV or what to mention in an interview/personal statement should be considered in the light of this Grand Principle. I can't say if this is true or false as a general rule, but it's categorically false for me: personally I'm delighted if a job candidate tells me they are interested in archery, or chess, or surfing, or playing piano, or whiling away their time answering elementary questions on Mathematics StackExchange. Think about it this way: given that I already know the level of research they do (which presumably must be pretty good if I'm interviewing them), any evidence that they have other unusual skills or abilities outside of math research can only raise them in my estimation. Besides, when you hire someone you get a complete package, mathematician/academic+human being, and personally I rather like being surrounded by interesting human beings and not just paper-writing robots. But maybe I'm weird and it's just me who thinks this way, so handle this advice with proper caution.

Answer 2

As a committee member/voting faculty member (at R1 place) on relevant things, etc., I'd say that mention of "high reputation" would seem childish, but as "outreach", activity on such sites is a plus. It is "outreach", which is good, if not super-glam. In the future, it may be more than "outreach" (which is not exactly the right descriptor, anyway), but for the moment, this is a reasonably modest description... and does resonate with current "allowable" categories of "good things" on CVs and such. So, no, don't tell what "hats" you got around Xmas, nor "medals" or whatever they are, but perhaps mention _outreach_activity_. (Five or ten years from now, I imagine the descriptors and the ground-rules will be different...)

Answer 3

I looked at your network profile, and knowing your MSE rep would not make a difference for a job interview at a research school. (I'm not belittling--my MSE rep is about the same as yours! (currently in the 800s)) For a liberal arts/teaching school, knowing you are active on MSE may help a little. So sure you can mention it as supporting evidence of enjoying to answer students math questions, and you could even mention in a teaching statement if it supports your claims. However, I would definitely not mention rep anywhere.

I vaguelly recall a similar question on MO or MSE (there have been many on other SE sites), where someone said just to mention it on your CV if you're a moderator, however I can't find such a post, so I may be imagining things. (I personally wouldn't find it offputting to see something like "MathStackExchange, active contributor" on a CV if your profile used your real name and you are pretty active. Note: I don't consider myself as active on MSE.)

Answer 4

I have never seen a stackexchange rep on a CV, and would find it off-putting. But, I would highly recommend mentioning your involvement in SE on your professional website (you have one, right?)

Answer 5

Would a high stack exchange rep make a difference in a job interview?

It could.

From an MBA's perspective (my graduate degree), to be successful in a crowded marketplace, a field of strong competition, you need to differentiate yourself.

To get the job you are aiming for, naturally, you'll need to demonstrate that you have the qualifications that are required for the job, which is necesssary, and perhaps sufficient.

However, a strong reputation on a stack exchange site also demonstrates that additionally:

• You're a strong communicator.
• You have earned the trust of a community (in addition to the institution awarding your degree).

By inspecting the content that you have provided, a potential employer may additionally find evidence that you are an expert in the subject matter of the site. In fact, they may infer it without inspection, but I would consider it part of necessary due diligence if I were considering a user's account in this context.

So you would also want to make sure your content reflects well on you (so consider curating your most prominent work).

If you can demonstrate all of these things, they could easily make the difference between an offer and being the second choice. So I think you've found a wise hobby to take up.

Answer 6

I have been consistently in the top 1% at CrossValidated aka Stats.SE for the past two or three years, and frankly of other top users, there are only two or three people with real names whom I could locate in "proper" academia in stats departments. When one of these stats profs posted a job ad on a mailing list (unrelated to SE system), I asked him whether the CV reputation could matter (not that I was interested in the job, but just curious). His response was along that in his opinion, it should, but in reality, most of the interview panel would not have heard about it.

Small print: (1) if a person does not want to put their real name in the profile, I take it they probably don't want to have their professional identity (name on papers, etc.) mix up with their SE outreach -- my username is a part of real name, and together with a non-English origin and a picture, there is little difficulty in figuring out who I am in RL; (2) there are also probabilists and sociologists and representatives of other disciplines among the top Stats.SE users with real names, as far as a I can tell. (Parenthetically, for a statistical world with about 17K members in the American Statistical Association alone, presence of "proper" statisticians at Stats.SE can be characterized as dismal. As a junior elected officer of the Association, I keep grinding my teeth about it... but I can't realistically change the rules of the academic game to make sure tenure is only awarded if you have reputation of 1K+/year on your discipline's SE site.)

My bet is that the best use of your reputation is to try to find somebody at the school you are looking at through MO/MSE, and introduce yourself via email, saying something to the effect of "I connected the dots between your department faculty list and MSE user list, and found you there on the MSE. I am applying for a job at your department. As you are obviously aware of what MSE is, you might be interested in looking at my profile and activity on the site to better see how I think as a mathematician". If nobody at that department knows what MSE is, then mentioning it is counterproductive, as the big busy people reviewing your application would just think you waste your precious time instead of doing research.

Applications to industry would be an entire matter whatsoever. Your ability to explain things well, as evidenced by your SE rep, is a great asset for industry where most of the work is done in teams, and you may be the most technical person on the team who has to explain why branch-and-bound is the only freaking way to solve this particular problem to other team members and to the clients.

Answer 7

This isn't something that you'd normally put on a CV and if you did, I don't think it would help your chances and might hurt them with some search committee members.

Having reviewed hundreds of CV's for math faculty searches in recent years, I can tell you that I've never seen one that mentioned the applicant's stack exchange reputation.

Answer 8

I don't see it as helpful. In evaluating candidates for research oriented positions, the key factors are going to be: strength and number of publications, outlook for the research area, and letters of recommendation. People want to see that you have a lot of potential to produce high quality research. I don't see how participation in the stack exchange contributes to that.

Answer 9

While I'm not an academic, I've always maintained a "Participating in the Community" or "Giving Back to the Community" section of my resume. That's where I list things like long-term participation in relevant fora, any special roles I may have held (e.g. moderator, editor, front-page writer), and any special recognition I may have received (e.g. "only X% of participants earn "Mentor" level recognition"). I also include my contributions to open-source and open-documentation projects, as well as any work I've done with local user groups and conferences (e.g. content selection committee, speaker/presenter).

Whether I include that section when sending my resume to a potential employer depends largely upon that employer's public presence; if they sponsor conferences or host discussion boards/fora, or if they actively encourage their employees to participate in such things, I want them to see (up front) my experiernce in that area. If they don't have a strong public presence, I save that information for the interview (but make sure to mention it there).

Answer 10

I can't speak for other departments, but at every academic institution I've been part of, the faculty who sit on search committees--especially if they are senior faculty--are very, very busy. In addition to their careers, which include research, teaching, grant-writing, travel, and managing postdocs and graduate students, they often have families. A faculty search and reviewing the hundreds of CV's that come in, then interviewing, taking the candidates to lunch, etc. is a huge time suck. I am guessing that most such faculty do not participate much in sites like SE. In fact in my experience, mostly these committees consist of older professors who are not necessarily that Internet-savvy and probably have never heard of SE.

So I don't necessarily think SE would be helpful to mention at an R1, and in fact (like blogging) it could be a risk. I have seen R1 professors' entire careers implode due to blogs, plus there's a school of thought that says that if you are blogging then you aren't spending time on research. The search committee cares, bottom line, how much positive attention and grant money you can bring to the department. To judge this they look at how many highly visible publications you have, and also at who is recommending you.

At a liberal arts college, it may be very helpful--but again the faculty are very busy at these schools--comparably to the R1's, though their primary energy is going into teaching and course prep with high course loads, grading, service--and on the treadmills of their own jobs, so don't expect them to have heard of SE.