If you’re a student or new to the job market, have no fear. You’re in good company. Our most recent Developer Survey found that 11% of our users are currently students and 25% of our users have less than 5 years of work experience. You’re one of the largest demographics coming to Stack Overflow.
But we don’t want you to just come to the platform looking for answers; we want you to feel comfortable sharing your voice with the community. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be an expert to contribute. You just need to be curious…and if you’re looking for answers on Stack Overflow, you probably already are. Plus, building a presence on Stack Overflow is a great way to start engaging with seasoned developers and peers alike, helping you form connections that may someday help you in your career or life path. So we ask: why be a lurker when you can be a community member?
You can start building your reputation (and your presence) on Stack Overflow by providing answers, comments, and votes. And what’s a more powerful way to build your professional portfolio and network than by discussing technical challenges with seasoned developers?
Northeastern University reported that building your personal branding, or presence, “boosts your career. In fact, hiring managers often report that a candidate's personal brand plays a role in hiring decisions.” Building on your Stack Overflow profile establishes your footprint in one of the internet’s foundational developer communities. Hey, even companies looking for tech talent are building their brand on our site. We’re not kidding, they are.
So if you’re ready to stand out from the crowd and stop being a lurker, here’s the fast and easy approach to building your presence on Stack Overflow.
Share a comment and share your voice
Commenting on a question or answer is a great, low-stakes way to start participating in topics that you find interesting. If you need clarification on a question or want to know more about an answer, comments are the place to ask for context. A good rule of thumb is that if you are thinking it, someone else probably is too. Asking for more information helps everyone in the long run by making the post easier to understand.
Comments are a good way to ask follow-up questions or provide clarifications that could help an author improve the post. Fresh perspectives are the backbone of technological innovation, so sharing your thoughts when you disagree with something not only improves the post you're commenting on, but helps the entire community. Technology is constantly changing, and nobody is perfect. Criticism may not be fun to receive, but it gives everyone the opportunity to improve.
Another benefit for commenting? If you’ve had a similar question get closed as a duplicate, you can add a comment to a similar post with your use case. An existing answer might even get edited to include your solution.
Answer what you know
You don’t need to be an expert to start providing answers. Unique perspectives and approaches to questions are part of what makes Stack Overflow the best place for developer knowledge. It’s also why we have the Populist badge—because sometimes an accepted answer is not actually the best one.
So don’t be afraid to share your thoughts; your perspective might be what another developer needs. And even if you don’t have a full solution, sharing a partial answer can be more helpful than you think. Often, a little push can help someone work their way to an answer on their own.
And we know that this might feel a bit nerve-wracking, especially if you’re just starting to learn to code or early in your career. But being able to collaborate, communicate your thinking, and guide others through your process are pivotal skills for developers. It’s not just about knowing all the answers, it’s about learning how to work with others to solve technical problems. You can start building these skills today on Stack Overflow.
As a developer, you also have to get comfortable with getting it wrong sometimes. We’ve all been there. But even getting something wrong, or rejected, or discredited is a learning experience. Only doing the easy things because you’re sure they’re right might feel good, but nobody said being a developer was easy. Learning how to handle getting things wrong and being able to correct your mistakes is what makes you a better developer.
These kinds of experiences are what employers will someday ask you about in interviews. How do you deal with feedback? What do you do when you make a mistake? Can you share with us a time you had to collaborate on a problem? The good news is that you can start writing the answers for those questions today—by answering some questions on Stack Overflow.
Vote on what matters to you
If you’re not ready to shout your thoughts from the metaphorical Stack rooftop, that’s okay. Your vote still matters. Voting is one powerful and anonymous way that you can have your opinion heard on the site, and help future users find the best, most reliable information.
If you find a post that is helpful for your needs, show appreciation with an upvote. Upvoting questions and answers makes it easier for the next person to find relevant information, bringing the best Q&As to the top and building a better experience for everyone. And if you see something you don’t think is helpful, downvoting tells the community and future users that a post may be low quality or inaccurate, and that they should proceed with caution until the post is updated.
If you’re just starting on Stack Overflow and not quite ready to post a comment or an answer, you can still help keep the Q&A thriving and have your voice heard by simply voting as you explore the platform. Currently voting requires certain reputation scores, but we’re rolling out an experiment, over the course of September, that supplies a limited amount of votes to those users. If you have enough reputation or have access to this experiment, try upvoting answers that help you.
Gaining reputation and earning badges
To showcase your presence and participation, you’ll gain reputation points (which unlocks privileges) and badges. And these aren’t just shiny, useless trophies either. They’re a real representation of the trust and confidence you’ve earned from the community and from Stack Overflow, a site visited by developers and tech leaders from around the world every day. Reputation and badges prove that you are an active and engaged community member, a subject matter expert in your field, and a continuous learner. They show your growth and contributions, and are a quantifiable way to build your presence in the developer ecosystem.
Stop lurking, start building
Your developer journey is a long one. But as technology changes and the job market shifts, it’s more important than ever to start building a presence now. By actively participating, you’re building your own credibility, portfolio, and branding for your career. Plus, you’re helping others, which is always a fun bonus. So if you’re ready to stop lurking, you can start here:
- Contribute an answer, even if it’s not a full solution
- Comment on questions and answers you find interesting
- Vote on content that you find valuable
- Join the Stack Overflow Lobby chatroom to connect in relaxed spaces with other technologists
You can start small, but you should start today. Over time, your profile will grow as a testament to your contributions and relevancy in your career growth. Your voice matters. Every action you take makes the Stack Overflow community stronger and healthier, and helps make you a better developer.