Hire Yourself First (Build in Public)
Do the job professionally in public before anyone hires you — then the hire is just changing the vehicle.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 87%
A career-entry framework for the new AI-era roles: you don't wait for a company to grant you the title of 'vibe coder' — you appoint yourself one, do the work publicly, and share everything. Building in public, giving away every secret, and demonstrating the craft (including applying to jobs with built apps instead of resumes) is what gets you noticed and hired, because you're already doing the job before the offer.
Origin
Lazar Jovanovic's own path to becoming Lovable's first official vibe coding engineer — hired after a single conversation with Elena Verna, largely because he'd been building in public via YouTube and LinkedIn.
Core principles
- 01You don't need a company to hire you — you can hire yourself as a professional vibe coder first.
- 02Do the job you would have done anyway; getting hired just changes the vehicle, not the work.
- 03Share everything — there are no real secrets, and sitting on a good concept is missing out.
- 04Distribution matters: in a world where everyone builds, getting in front of decision-makers' eyeballs is the scarce resource.
- 05Demonstrate the craft in the medium of the craft — show, don't tell.
How to run it
- 1
Appoint yourself and do the work
Start doing the role professionally now — build real internal and external products with AI tools — without waiting for a title or an employer to sanction it.
- 2
Build in public and give away the secrets
Share your projects, failures, and knowledge openly. Lazar used a YouTube channel and LinkedIn (choosing LinkedIn for its tolerance of long-form over X's brevity) to document everything he built.
Pro tip Pick the platform whose format fits your natural cadence — long-form thinkers do better on LinkedIn than on X.
- 3
Show the craft in the craft's medium
When approaching companies, demonstrate rather than describe: applicants got hired at Lovable by sending built Lovable apps instead of resumes, because employees will always open a lovable.app link.
Pro tip Send a short built app that says what you want and how you'd collaborate — not a long message or a traditional resume.
- 4
Get into builder rooms
Join hackathons and local builder communities to connect with other builders and create surface area for opportunities, and apply directly to companies hiring across roles.
In the wild
Lazar spoke with Elena Verna only once; asked why she picked him from a crowd of good builders, the throughline was that he'd been building in public and sharing everything on YouTube and LinkedIn.
→ He became the first official Vibe Coding Engineer at Lovable, effectively hired for a job he was already doing publicly.
Lazar reveals that several Lovable hires stood out not by sending resumes but by sending Lovable apps that demonstrated why they fit the role.
→ These candidates got noticed because they showed the exact skill in the exact medium, and employees reliably opened the lovable.app links.
Common mistakes
Waiting to be granted the title before doing the work
Treating the role as something only a company can confer means you never build the public track record that gets you hired. Lazar's point is you must already be doing it professionally before the offer comes.
Hoarding your best ideas and methods
Keeping a good concept secret is 'missing out.' The visibility and trust that come from giving away everything you figure out is precisely what surfaces you to decision-makers in a crowded field of builders.
Is it for you?
Best for
People with diverse, non-linear backgrounds who are already vibe coding and want to turn it into a paid, professional role.
Not ideal for
Roles requiring credentialed depth (elite engineering, regulated fields) where a public build portfolio doesn't substitute for the underlying expertise.
From the transcript
“you don't need a company to hire you. You can hire yourself as a professional vibeer first”
“A couple of hires stood up by not sending resumes, but sending lovable apps.”
“it became a job by building in public”
From the episode
The rise of the professional vibe coder (a new AI-era job)
Lazar Jovanovic (Professional Vibe Coder)