Hi Reader,

A few good writing samples used to be enough to get hired. Now hiring managers want to see that we can work in Git, publish docs as code, and use LLMs well. Most of our best work sits behind an NDA, though, so we can't just send a link.

Gale James solved that by building her own proof. On this week's episode of Technical Writing Uncensored, she walked me through 3 projects she built on her own time:

• BookHub API docs, a sample API documentation site on Mintlify's free version, published from her GitHub repository
• A doc quality evaluator that uses an LLM to score documentation on a 1 to 5 scale, with and without RAG
• BookHub Agent Runtime, a documentation agent that answers questions using only her docs

Gale found a big gap between the two evaluations. A README usually scores high on the basic review because there's so little in it to criticize. Once she added RAG, the same README scored lower and got more specific feedback.

Before we continue, a quick word from today's sponsor:

And now, back to Gale.

The second half of the episode covers her job search. Gale set up a Claude project with her resume, candidate profile, personal style guide, and career stories, then scheduled a search that checked each posting against the company's own careers page. It only surfaced roles that matched her experience, so she applied to fewer jobs, and the ones she applied to were strong matches. By her estimate, it saved her hours a day.

Her advice for building a portfolio is practical. Pick a tool with a free or hobby tier instead of a trial that expires in 2 weeks. Use documentation that isn't covered by an NDA. And start before you need it, because a layoff doesn't always come with much notice.

Gale's project links are in the video description if you want to try her tools yourself. If you've built tools of your own, reply and tell me about them.

Diana Payton