Add heading levels for TOC

Author: devalog

_site/2025/05/23/primer.html

@@ -81,6 +81,14 @@ <h3>Page Contents</h3>
 
 
 
+      <li class="toc-level-3">
+        <a href="#resources">Resources</a>
+      </li>
+    
+      
+      
+      
+      
       <li class="toc-level-2">
         <a href="#framing-your-experience">Framing your experience</a>
       </li>
@@ -97,6 +105,14 @@ <h3>Page Contents</h3>
 
 
 
+      <li class="toc-level-3">
+        <a href="#my-own-samples">My own samples</a>
+      </li>
+    
+      
+      
+      
+      
       <li class="toc-level-2">
         <a href="#looking-for-jobs">Looking for jobs</a>
       </li>
@@ -124,6 +140,8 @@ <h2 id="what-even-is-technical-writing">What even is technical writing?</h2>
 
 <p>Technical writers have a big range of technical abilities. Some are literally ex-engineers. Others have very little experience writing code, but write for nontechnical users so that works.</p>
 
+<h3 id="resources">Resources</h3>
+
 <p>Here are some general resources on the technical writing field:</p>
 <ul>
   <li><a href="https://www.writethedocs.org/">Write the Docs community</a>. The site has some good resources on the field (including salary information and a hiring guide). The Slack group is super prolific and contains a ton of channels on topics like AI, jobs, resume review, etc.</li>
@@ -142,7 +160,9 @@ <h2 id="framing-your-experience">Framing your experience</h2>
 
 <p>Web development (Markdown, HTML, CSS, GitHub/version control) skills are broadly applicable to many technical writing jobs because many technical writing jobs use these technologies to publish and update their docs. (Not all, though! I interviewed with a company that used Microsoft Word to write all of their docs.) I think the best way to approach technical writing as a field is to figure out what you’re good at, what skills you already have, and what skills you can refine or add. Then, look for jobs that align.</p>
 
-<p>You will probably be able to frame some of your past work as relevant technical writing experience. Of course, it’s not all about framing. You also might just not have the background. You might decide you need to go back to school, or do a certificate program, or teach yourself some new skills. But if you have some kind of experience doing something technical and some kind of experience writing, I’d think you’d probably be able to make a go of it:</p>
+<p>You will probably be able to frame some of your past work as relevant technical writing experience. Of course, it’s not all about framing. You also might just not have the background. You might decide you need to go back to school, or do a certificate program, or teach yourself some new skills.</p>
+
+<p>But if you have some kind of experience doing something technical and some kind of experience writing, I’d think you’d probably be able to make a go of it:</p>
 <ul>
   <li>If you’re a software engineer looking to break into technical writing, you’ve probably written documentation in previous roles. This is technical writing experience, and you can emphasize it in your resume. Lots of tech writing roles are specifically looking for people with engineering experience.</li>
   <li>If you’re an English teacher who took one Python class in college, you could start by brushing up on your Python skills and maybe making a simple app. Maybe you could look for opportunities in the edtech space. You could focus on curriculum developer or instructional designer jobs, which typically fall under the technical writing umbrella but require more extensive learning design and teaching experience.</li>
@@ -158,6 +178,8 @@ <h2 id="getting-writing-samples-together">Getting writing samples together</h2>
 
 <p>If you’re just getting into the field, you might not have a relevant writing sample. When I was going through the application process for Google back in 2017, I literally submitted an academic paper I wrote as one of my writing samples, though I had a couple more relevant samples from my tech writing internship the prior summer. When I left Google in December 2024, I once again found myself in need of writing samples. The tutorials I wrote for my internship in 2017 were too old (in my own opinion). Plus, I’d grown so much as a writer since then. However, almost all of my work at Google was for internal engineers and thus wasn’t shareable.</p>
 
+<h3 id="my-own-samples">My own samples</h3>
+
 <p>After a bit of trial and error (error = getting a lot of rejections!), I wrote a few samples that I’ve had pretty good success with. (Success to me is getting to the initial interview for a job that requires writing samples upfront.) Here they are:</p>
 <ul>
   <li><a href="2025-02-09-jekyll.md">Using an LLM to revamp my site</a></li>