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I'm interested to hear what other people think about this. I do editing and production work for a publisher of medical journals with print, web, and iPad content. Though not in the tech industry, computers are part of daily life.

My knowledge in all things Windows, MS Office, Acrobat, Publishing Suite, etc., combined with my willingness to assist my colleagues, is a real strong point of mine, and it has certainly contributed to my success in my current position.

I've been looking for a new gig over the last couple of months, and I want to get this point across to potential future employers. I get the feeling, however, that "Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, blah blah..." on a résumé has become almost as common and meaningless as "Attention to detail..."

That got me to thinking that my comments, questions, and answers on Super User might serve to show, instead of just tell, potential employers that I have real, applicable knowledge/experience with the software used in their office.

Does anyone have experience (either as an employer or as a job seeker) with Super User being used as a reference? Do you think employers would care to look or would it just seem unprofessional?

PS - I'm not asking for a critique of my specific contributions to Super User (let's assume it is all stellar:)), but a general idea on how this might be viewed in the professional world.

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    A lot of employers and recruiters still only think there is Stack Overflow only as part of Stack Exchange
    – random Mod
    Jan 5, 2014 at 17:05
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    @PFitz do you have a Stack Overflow Careers account? That's another way to more officially showcase your Stack Exchange contributions. Although targetted at programming jobs, you can also use it to show participation on Super User and other Stack Exchange sites. I've put references to Stack Exchange participation in resumes and cover letters before when relevant, and even had an interviewer ask me about it once.
    – nhinkle
    Jan 5, 2014 at 18:40
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    Another thing that's good to do is quantifying your contributions. This applies to all parts of a resume. For example, I've calculated the total views on questions on which I have the accepted answer and on blog posts I've written, and have a line that says "independent technical writing with over x article views".
    – nhinkle
    Jan 5, 2014 at 18:46
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    Just to add to @nhinkle mentioning Stack Overflow Careers 2.0, it aggregates points on tags across all SE sites, and you can display badges on it. Mine has an excel badge for top 20% (I think) which is mostly SU. Jan 6, 2014 at 11:08
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    While an interesting question, isn't this a better fit for Workplace?
    – user
    Jan 6, 2014 at 14:34
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    This question appears to be off-topic because it is about a professional choice and not about the website superuser.com which is what meta is supposed to discuss.
    – terdon
    Jan 15, 2014 at 1:53
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    Some questions on one meta site or another make great SO or SU main site questions. Example. So there's probably always some overlap…
    – Daniel Beck Mod
    Jan 15, 2014 at 23:07

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