Frequently Asked Questions
What is Careers 2.0?
Careers 2.0 matches great programmers on Stack Overflow with great jobs. Programmers create profiles highlighting their work on Stack Overflow, which gives employers an in-depth look at their expertise. Employers search for programmers by location, objective, and skills, and screen them based on peer-reviewed work.
FAQ For Programmers
What is a Careers 2.0 Profile?
A Careers 2.0 profile is the ultimate programmer portfolio. It includes traditional resume stuff (education and experience), but also includes your favorite answers from Stack Overflow, and links to other examples of your work like blog posts and github.
How do I get one?
Careers 2.0 profiles are by invitation only. You may be invited based on your participation on Stack Overflow, or by another programmer who admires your work.
Is there any charge?
No, there is no charge to programmers. The system is entirely paid for by employers.
But… you used to charge!
We don’t any more.
Do I have to have a Stack Overflow account?
No.
How hard is it to set up?
Not hard at all! All you have to do is fill in a few fields about yourself, select your favorite answers from Stack Overflow, and input your experience and education.
I already entered my experience and education on LinkedIn.
Great! You can import it from LinkedIn with just three clicks.
Is my profile visible to the world?
That’s up to you. If you do make it public, we’ll give you a URL you can give out when you apply for jobs.
Do I need high reputation on Stack Overflow to get a job?
Absolutely not. Employers don’t care about your total reputation; they just care about the quality of your work. The best way to get a job through Stack Overflow is to have several well-written answers that demonstrate your skills, which have received a certain number of upvotes from your peers.
Will I be harassed by recruiters?
No. You can always control whether your profile appears in employer searches, and you can block any employer that sends you unwanted messages.
What is the difference between an “Active Candidate” and a “Passive Candidate?”
An active candidate is someone who is currently seeking a new job. They appear in all employer searches. If an employer wants to contact them, they will be notified by email, on Careers 2.0, and in their Stack Exchange inbox.
A passive candidate is someone who isn't looking for a new job right now, but is open to the occasional message from a well-matched employer.
We also give recruiters a tool to search public profiles on Stack Overflow, information that is already public; any results which come up are shown as passive candidates. If a recruiter wants to contact you based on your public profile, we will ask your permission first via the Stack Exchange inbox.
I love my job, or, I had pre-IPO stock in Google and never need to work again, and never want to see messages from employers.
The first time an employer asks permission to contact you, just select the option to block all employers and you’ll never hear from anyone again.
I never signed up for this Careers 2.0 thing… why do I have a profile?
You have a Stack Overflow profile which is visible to anyone on the Internet (not just employers). The contents of this profile are entirely controlled by you, and if you make changes on your Stack Overflow profile they will be pulled into Careers within 24 hours.
What if I previously paid for membership in Stack Overflow Careers?
If you paid for the 1.0 version of Stack Overflow Careers, your profile has automatically been upgraded to Careers 2.0 and you will have a free lifetime membership. We no longer charge any job seekers to participate.
FAQ For Employers
Why should I search for candidates on Careers 2.0?
Because you’ll find great programmers. We’ve taken the largest pool of programmers in the world, and prescreened them to include only active Stack Overflow members and programmers invited by their peers. You’re already starting with some great talent: programmers who care about improving their skills all the time, are willing to help their peers, and are good at explaining things.
Then, instead of just giving you a traditional resume, which tells you nothing, we’ll show you a sample of the peer-reviewed answers from Stack Overflow. This is a great way to see the actual quality of the work the programmer does, how deep their knowledge goes, and whether they are good at communicating their ideas.
Is everyone on Careers 2.0 a great programmer?
Not everyone you’ll find is right for you. Not all of them are great. But you can find out a lot more about them before you interview them, so you can save a lot of time getting to the person you need to hire.
Aren’t active Stack Overflow participants just wasting time on the Internet?
Absolutely not. They are spending their free time learning more about programming and helping their fellow programmers—these are exactly the kind of people you want to hire. In some cases, they’re just underemployed or bored at work, so they’ll make great candidates for your openings.
I’m a recruiting specialist, not a programmer. Will I be able to tell who is a good programmer from their work on Stack Overflow?
Think of this part of the process as the first technical interview. Instead of scheduling a screening call with a member of your technical staff, just have your staff review the candidate’s profile. This is a much faster way to identify candidates that merit final interviews.
How many candidates are in your database?
There are 46,611 searchable candidates in our database:
- 6,524 candidates actively looking for a job
- 23,919 other candidates open to being contacted
- 16,168 profiles of top Stack Overflow users who can be contacted
That’s not so many.
Our emphasis is on quality over quantity. Unlike the giant job boards with millions of unqualified resumes, our invite-only, peer-reviewed system serves to separate the wheat from the chaff. If you are used to sourcing 300 resumes and then discovering that only two of them are qualified, you’ll discover on Careers 2.0 that you can source five profiles and still net two qualified candidates. If your recruiting process depends on sourcing large numbers of candidates without regard to quality, you’re in the wrong place. (Craigslist is awesome. We love ‘em. Have fun with the resume screening.)
I love receiving lots of resumes, and want to reach people who aren’t active Stack Overflow participants.
We also offer a very popular job listing service. For $350 or less, you can put job listings on our site which can be seen by millions of monthly visitors. They can be targeted based on geography or technology.
What is the difference between an active candidate and a passive candidate?
Active candidates have indicated to us that they are actively looking for new jobs. If you are interested in hiring one of them, they will receive a message via email immediately and can choose whether to reply.
Passive candidates are users who haven't indicated that they're looking for a job. They are primarily Stack Overflow users who are not actively looking for jobs. They are probably happy where they are, but, who knows? Maybe you can make them an offer they can’t resist. If you are interested in hiring one of them, we will ask them for permission to let you contact them.
How do I know if you have qualified candidates in my area?
Even before you sign up, try a sample search on our site, and we’ll tell you how many matching candidates we have.
How much does it cost?
Subscriptions are available starting at $500.
| 1 week | $500 |
| 1 month | $1000 |
| 6 months | $3000 |
| 1 year | $5000 |
How many people can I hire?
When you subscribe, you can do as many searches as you want while your subscription is active. You can then send messages to up to 20 candidates. As you receive replies from each candidate, you can send more messages. You can have up to 20 messages outstanding at any time. If you don’t receive a response from someone within 7 days, that message goes back into your account and you can try someone else.
What if I don’t find anyone?
We know there are great people on Stack Overflow, but if you don’t feel like you’re getting your money’s worth, just let us know and we’ll refund the full amount you paid.
Need more information?
Give one of our recruiting specialists a call at +1-212-232-8294 or email us.