Hey everyone 👋🏻
I'm Matt (@mattkingshott), a full-stack developer working mainly with Laravel & Vue. You might have seen me posting tips and code tricks on Twitter over the last year.
Side note: I've actually published so many that I'm building a dedicated platform for code tips called @TipSeaApp. But that's for another time...
Ash was kind enough to offer a me a guest-post spot on his blog, so I'm going to use it to briefly talk to you about Lumeno, a product that I built and launched a couple of months ago.
What is Lumeno?
TLDR: It helps the modern IT professional bundle together work-related content so that they can maintain a career-focused web portfolio.
Here's the longer version...
The modern IT developer, designer, engineer and so on, is currently forced to use a fragmented collection of apps and services in order to maintain a career profile that follows them wherever they go. Things often get so bad that many resort to maintaining a personal website simply to keep things organised.
Lumeno solves this by offering a platform that allows you to maintain:
- A résumé of technical skills (that map to a growing library of tools).
- A record of your education (including degree qualifications).
- Your employment history in a neatly organised timeline.
- A project portfolio (includes logos, images and donation links).
- Your written articles (including syntax-highlighted code).
Why is that a big deal?
Bundling things together is just the start, what really matters, is how Lumeno can use all of this to make the recruitment process a lot better for everyone.
As we all know, the hiring process in the IT world is dreadful. Not only that, but it doesn't actually work a lot of the time. Between the cold emails and holding back details, many experienced IT professionals don't seek out opportunities, while others ignore almost anything that comes their way.
Alongside that, we have the archaic job board, which depends on the right people visiting the board at the right time. They're also incredibly frustrating, as they require candidates to trawl through near-identical listings, only to discover that they aren't right for them because of reason X.
Lumeno aims to address this by flipping the current model on its head:
- IT professionals don't have to search for vacancies (no job boards).
- A vacancy isn't a block of text, but rather a sophisticated database query that finds candidates that truly match its requirements. It must therefore include all the details upfront e.g. salary, technical requirements, time commitment etc.
- A Lumeno profile contains capabilities, as well as preferences (e.g. remote working, minimum salary, commute distance etc.) so that IT pros can exclude themselves from vacancies that they will never be interested in.
- Businesses should be able to instantly see and reach out directly to (ONLY) matching candidates using a simple and transparent process.
Here's a diagram showing how it works in practice...
I sense a 'but' coming...
Launching a SaaS is never smooth sailing, sadly. However, in Lumeno's case, it isn't really the app that has had issues. Rather, it's more of a short-term mindset that has limited its early growth.
It seems that quite a few developers only really concern themselves with anything job / recruitment related (including signing up to Lumeno) when they actually need a job. By that time, your options are limited and you probably won't find exactly what you're looking for (in the time that you have).
As you're probably beginning to see, Lumeno doesn't really work under those circumstances. Instead, it is more of a long-term investment. You create (and update as-needed) your profile and it stays with you throughout your career.
Meanwhile, employers come along, create a vacancy and reach out if they like the look of you. You then receive an email containing everything that you need to make a decision on whether you want to contact them. But the best part, is that if you receive an email, then you already know that all of your requirements are met and that the tech stack matches your own.
As I'm sure you can imagine, this approach is the best of both worlds. It allows employers to find and reach out to candidates immediately, while developers get to sit back, relax and consider the big picture of what an invite will lead to.
Are there any downsides?
Not really (unless you need a job immediately). Otherwise, there's literally nothing to lose. So, if you feel like this might be of value to you, then head on over to https://lumeno.dev and create a profile. It only takes a few minutes and (in time) it could land you your dream job.
Wrapping up
I want to thank Ash once again for his generosity in allowing me to write this guest-post for his blog... also a big thank you to everyone that got through this article. I know recruitment isn't a sexy topic, but getting it right is perhaps the most important decision we will make in our professional lives.
If you'd like to know more or have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter. My DMs are open :)
Have a great day!