Research with NotebookLM
Before you spec your site, ground yourself in what makes a strong career portfolio. The workshop's NotebookLM has a curated set of sources — recruiter blog posts, GDE talks, hiring research. The Gemini Gem in the next step references this notebook so its questions land sharper.
What is NotebookLM?
NotebookLM is Google's source-grounded notebook assistant. You give it a corpus, and the chat answers ground every claim back to the original sources — no hallucination, full citations.
Open the workshop NotebookLM
Your instructor will give you a link. It looks like notebooklm.google.com/notebook/....
Spend ~10 minutes here
- Scan the source list — these are the inputs the Gem will reference; knowing what's in the notebook tells you what shape of answers to expect.
- Ask 2 or 3 questions in the chat. Examples to try:
- "What do recruiters look for in a junior developer's portfolio?"
- "What kinds of projects stand out for a first-job application?"
- "How long should the bio section be?"
- Notice the citations — every answer points back to specific source paragraphs. That's what "grounded" means in practice.
Why this step exists
Spec quality is downstream of context quality. The Gem will ask you about your projects, bio, target role — your answers are sharper when you've just spent 10 minutes inside research that's specifically about portfolios that work.
What carries forward
- The Gem references this same NotebookLM, so its prompts assume you've been here.
- You don't need to copy anything from NotebookLM into the Gem — the Gem has its own access.
- Optional: keep one quote or fact in mind that surprised you. Mention it to the Gem when it asks for "anything you want highlighted".
- NotebookLM is grounded — every claim is sourced, no hallucination.
- Spend 10 minutes scanning sources and asking 2–3 questions before moving on.
- The Gem in the next step shares the same notebook as context.