Ask HN: Would you include your HN username on your resume? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Would you include your HN username on your resume?

9 pointsiqonik16 comments

Assuming it is for a technical role, would Karma be interesting for the person hiring? Would your comments be useful to know if you're a good fit? Or is it just too risky?

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If you're applying to YC backed start-up or to YC itself your HN username will have some weight, outside of that I would not bother.

Github or Stackoverflow, why not? But HN? I don't think so, there is not really something to show here.

HN is very well known to a subset of the high-tech community, not necessarily limited to the SF Bay Area by any means, but probably concentrated there. It is less well known outside of that region, and generally unheard of outside the tech industry.

I would not expect an HN username to do much good on a resume unless, as JM suggests, you are applying to a YC-backed company.

On the flipside, the kind of company that considers your HN username a compelling data point on your resume is probably a fun company to work for. :)

On the flipside, the kind of company that considers your HN username a compelling data point on your resume is probably a fun company to work for.

This is exactly why it doesn't hurt to include it. I live and work in London and if someone applied for one of my jobs and had their HN username on their CV, I would check it out immediately. The fact is, it shows an active interest in the field outside of your day-to-day work. I can't think of any circumstance where it would have a negative impact.

I doubt anyone would care about karma, but if you're in the habit of making thoughtful comments, it could help give the interviewer a sense of who you are, the depth of your thinking, the subjects that interest you, your writing skills, etc.

If you were to include your username in the "interests" section of your resume, I think it would do no harm if your comments are reasonable and could possibly help depending on the personality of the person who reads your resume.

Only if 1) you are one of the top posters on HN, 2) you are sure the people reading your resume are avid HNers and would recognize your name. Otherwise it's more likely to hurt than help.

Risky? Maybe for me. I make too many comments that go against the HN grain. For most people here it would probably be a good thing, though.

Association says something about interests and character, I believe.

GitHub/StackOverflow, yes... HN karma isn't supposed to be something you aspire to or cultivate, it's more for you to know your self, relative to the community here.

Agree. This questiom makes me think again what and why do people post here

Yes if you've been cultivating that user name with sharing it in mind from the get go. Otherwise no, there might be an incriminating little nugget of poop in there somewhere.

Depends how bad you want the job, how worried are you about your privacy and what you are planning to do on HN which is more important than what you have done before.

I don't think anyone would consider HN karma when making a hiring decision, so it's more like sharing your twitter handle than your github username.

The question is really, do you want potential employers to read the comments you've made on this site?

I see no reason why HN karma should be relevant for technical roles. Well, maybe there were deep technical conversations which would really impress, but noone's gonna dig for that.

GitHub or SO would be interesting, though.

hell no, here is why. I use a semi-anonymous username for a reason. I generally respond to most threads without properly thinking most responses out (after all, its a forum) and a lot of the time those responses are something I regret later on.

Nothing I post here I'm really embarrassed about, but nothing I'm really proud of.

No, although I wouldn't care if a potential employer found it.

Absolutely not.

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