✅ New Feature: Indicating your openness to mentoring and collaboration

Laradir is not just about finding work or your next job. And it's not only for businesses to find developers. I believe one of the really powerful ways it can and should work is as a means to connect Laravel devs with other Laravel devs.

I want to facilitate this as much as I can through the platform and I have some interesting ideas to help make it easier to find and connect with mentors and collaborators.

One part of this is allowing developers to unlock the profiles of other developers - something you can do right now using your free Credit. Soon you'll be able to message other developers directly on Laradir too, in the same way that Teams can message developers.

The other part is being able to actually find these developers in the first place. And that's where today's little update comes in...

If you go to edit your profile, you'll now see 2 new options in the Work Preferences > Open to... section (formerly Contract Types).

And the developer search includes these same options, allowing you to find developers who have toggled one of these options on.

So it's now easier than ever to find a mentor who aligns with your skills, location, and language and reach out to them.

Likewise for collaborators. This is a bit more open in meaning, because collaboration could be interpreted in many ways depending on the context. For example, if you're working on an open source project and you're looking for collaborators, this could be the place to start.

But it might also be that you've got a paying client and you need an extra pair of hands for a short period, or for just that project. Maybe you're in need of someone to pair-program with. So it might not be as 'meaty' as even part-time contract work.

As always, clear and frank communication around expectations will set the tone for how such engagements will work between you and the other developer. Don't be afraid to be straightforward with what you're in need of and give the other person the freedom to say no.

If your approach is declined, respect their answer and kindly move on.

You can see all developers currently open to mentoring or collaboration with this search.