I don't know that this is the right way to solve the resume 'problem' - I think LaTeX is a far superior choice, yet the author pretty much dimissed it as a possibility.
For me personally, I found LaTeX to be the perfect solution. I have my resume tex setup so I can set toggles to define what gets output. E.g. applying for a manager position, I might keep it brief and more technical.
The resume is modular and can be updated by updating external txt files and not the LaTeX itself. It looks nice, is always consistent, has nice links, etc.
It's optimized for all the ATS nonsense it inevitably gets run through, it generates a PDF, and I've made it near impossible for recruiters to copy and paste and repurpose it without retyping much of it, and I have a tone of tech tricks in their like invisible text that automated systems might see.
If LaTeX itself is sufficient, I can't imagine needing to add in something like Nix and a webserver or how that would be better in any way.
LaTeX is fine to me, as well. Heck, now that I'm older, I think bare TeX is probably fine. In line with what you are saying, I can offload the semantic nature of my resume to text files and just use the markup of TeX to layout how I want the page to look. Much easier if I don't try and have a single source that is both all of my semantic data with the layout at the same time.
I store the customizable data in YAML format and then use mako templates + a python script to transform my custom resume- and cover letter data into Latex | HTML | Plain text
> I think LaTeX is a far superior choice, yet the author pretty much dimissed it as a possibility.
Learning curve is a thing: I've never touched LaTeX, and I don't anticipate using it in the future. If I wanted to automate a thing as a learning project, I probably would rule out LaTeX unless I had a reason to want to learn it.
I’ve actually made the switch over to Typst[0] for my app [1]. I’ve previously used a quick jinja .tex template that then just pasted things in, but LaTeX can really throw some strange errors and overall handling the files was a hassle.
Typst was much easier to setup and the function-based operation meant that sending variables in was a breeze with better error handling there too. Also, I just grok the syntax a lot better.
Just another option for folks looking to redo their resumes/not use Latex.
It took me something like 20min to learn the very basics of Typst and generate a PDF of my resume from my machine (Typst is distributed as a single binary). Definitely a lot easier to work with than LaTeX.
I used this package [1] (see also the index [2] for more packages / templates).
Nix is completely orthogonal to whatever tech you use to build the resume - it's nice as a build tool + to provide dev environments for however you're going to realize your resume.
I have used LaTeX extensively over the years until Typst came along. Typst is exactly what I need. A lightweight syntax alternative of LaTeX without the issues. It supports SVGs and many more things that are very useful.
I would be careful with LaTeX. I use to have a LaTeX resume generated with LuaTeX. At an old company, I saw my LaTeX resume in the ATS long after I was hired. Apparently, something happened and the PDF displayed as blurred-but-not-unreadable in the ATS. Maybe the ATS did some post-processing or used a limited PDF display engine? Lucky for me, the resume for that job was just a formality. These days, I just use Google Docs and export to PDF.
I have yet to see a really good LaTeX CV. I guess it is possible but in my experience LaTeX just isn't designed for that and gives boring-looking results.
I have yet to see an impressive resume from someone that wasn't boring in layout. Worse, I have seen very few resumes that were not boring in looks that were attached to a good candidate. :(
I agree that most LaTeX CVs are kind of boring. But I think they are more interesting than the end product in TFA, which I found completely underwhelming.
Now I have spent quite a lot of time customizing LaTeX, to the point where people have come to ask how I produced certain documents, because it surely could not be LaTeX. If you have a specific design idea in your head, LaTeX is able to achieve it if you just spend enough time RTFMing.
LaTeX is a nightmare to use, so you shouldn't inflict it on people. While I've used it and there's a lot to like, there's very little there that you'd want or need to make a resume. And without those things (most notably good formula support), it just doesn't add enough to justify the pain of having it in your life.
My resume is in LaTeX, but I like using a nix Flake so I can easily run `nix build` to build the resume, and I've guaranteeably installed the correct version of texlive that I need cuz it's reproducible.
Nix obviously isn't strictly necessary, but making a flake wasn't terribly hard and it's nice to keep stuff standardized between distros and macos.
> It's optimized for all the ATS nonsense it inevitably gets run through
How did you do/test that? I help maintain (didn't author it originally) the AwesomeCV template; we have an open issue about this, inconsistent results and not really having a good way to test it.
I've never tried LaTeX, but I've built my last few resumes with plain old HTML+CSS then saving as PDF. Works pretty great and is insanely simple to upkeep/modify
Automating your resume is a bit of a rite of passage for new software engineers. It just feels like a stupid repetitive task.
I've found that I change job summaries so often, that automating it was a net negative in time spent on the thing. So now I just do the same as the digitally challenged: copy a Word file to "resume (DATE).docx" and change the contents as needed.
My younger self would be surprised, and slightly annoyed, at how often I use the "dumb" solutions for problems.
LaTeX itself is sort of a rite of passage. It's slightly more useful, because the mathematical side of academia runs on it.
There's a bunch of template you get for free by doing what everybody else is doing. The corporate world has those too, but for Word, because that's what they use.
There's this subconscious believe that something that has a steep learning curve will make things easier later on. That is not always true. If you want stuff that is more complex than normal, Word and LaTeX are about equally as annoying, if nobody solved it for you (templates, Google). LaTeX is just harder for the easy stuff too.
Doing my resume was the last thing I did in LaTeX, not the first. Doing anything in LaTeX just stopped being useful when the recipients didn't recognize Computer Modern anymore.
Mine is also automated, but a lot more lightweight.
I - like OP - use JSON Resume [1]. Besides that I just have a Github Action which creates a PDF and also updates a web-based version [2] hosted in AWS S3. My favourite thing about this setup is that if I want to make a small change I can just log in to Github and commit a quick edit in the repo [3] through Github's web-based UI A new PDF is generated and the web-based version being updates automatically.
I've made some improvements to the JR registry recently (still looks horrible)
But you can just go to https://registry.jsonresume.org, login with github, create the gist, and then your resume is automatically "deployed". And it is stored on github gist, so data is yours, and has revisions as a nice added benefit.
I regret to say it but I found what looks like a typo - you've got "automcomplete" where I think you mean "autocomplete". I hope this helps improve your resume.
Your CV is a lot closer visually to what I was expecting from the original post. Varied font sizes and use of different regions on the page. Easy to take in at a glance.
The linked resume is a poor example of the process.
It's neither visually pleasing nor is it more easily readable than other CVs that I have seen.
It's fine for a CV to be visually ugly as long as its readable, or visually attractive in spite of being less readable. You can't fail at both dimensions.
If you're really happy with a CV that looks and reads like this, save yourself all the effort and make a RTF document instead.
Agreed. It also has irrelevant fluff within the very first section, "I'm passionate about delivering products....I strive to center compassion..." etc.
That said, I never send the same resume to everyone. I tailor a resume for each job I apply to. This doesn't mean leaving off positions or lying. It does mean taking the work done in a position and giving it a slant toward the target job.
For example, let's say I created a web app that shows a sales dashboard, with stats visualization, from raw daily sales data.
Job 1 (applying for Front-End) - Created monthly sales dashboard web site using React, MaterialUI, SASS, Node, Riak, and D3. Dashboard provided grid-based summary over individual weeks, months, and years. It also provided configurable line graphs and pie charts for various sales metrics. Data pre-processing done with Sci-Kit. Later added sales prediction using Machine Learning.
Job 2 (applying for Data Analysis) - Analyzed raw daily sales data to determine data cleansing needed, and created tool pipeline using Python NumPy, SciKit, and scikit-learn. Integrated pipeline into Riak data source ingest, and then built sales dashboard web site to visualize the data. Provided ML model for sales prediction built with scikit-learn, with XX parameters. Model achieved YY accuracy with only a ZZ mean error.
Same work in both, but I highlight the tasks most relevant to the target job.
Other thoughts are that Latex is a good way to get a well laid out PDF resume (PDF is not the web, you should have two versions of your resume), and I agree with other commenters - the final product needs more polish if it was actually going to be used to produce a resume to send in (I think it's fine as a proof of concept though).
I wish there was a standard format for resume that was universally used. Every HR website requires you to upload a resume to apply, then tries to extract the various experiences and details automatically, invariably fucks it up completely, and you end up having to spend 20 minutes to correct it manually. Unless they treat this exercise as a form of captcha…
In Brazil we have Lattes (https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plataforma_Lattes). The English translation does not mention it, but one of it's most useful features is a centralized resume platform. It's quite nice, but mostly used by people in academia and government-adjacent areas.
Interesting approach. I am currently looking for jobs and went the 'career coaching' route for my CV. I did a few iterations with my coach until I got my current result (ideally I had a link):
I first looked at Canva templates, but apparently nowadays you are supposed to do black/white and no fancy designs for ATS readability. Then I tried it with Google Docs b/w resumee template, which kinda got me to write actual skills. Then I approached the coach, got her template and iterated, and then I also added some rules from here (https://principiae.be/pdfs/ECV-1.01.pdf).
I also involved ChatGPT to analyze job postings and to get the mix of keywords in my resumme right. Tools like https://tagcrowd.com/ also help with that. For example, I am targeting 'IT analyst' roles, and it does make sense that I have the word 'analysis' a few times in my CV.
E: mine is basically structured the following way
Name
Title
Summary
3x5 ATS keywords/skills specific to my profile and role
last ten years, also written in a way that 'gamifies' ATS: 'Year, worked as ROLE at Company, did XYZ'
--page 2--
Education (degree + grades)
Skills Training
Languages
Some more IT skills (programming languages, project management, ...)
E2: I obviously have no idea what I am doing, but I got three interview proposals for 10 applications, so I guess 30%.
As web dev, I migrated from TeX to svelte + Chrome's Print-to-PDF.
I've found that splitting data and representation is not as feasible as it sounds. You add a job and suddenly your CV doesn't fit on a page anymore, and cutting details from previous jobs isn't enough. So you change the layout, ever so slightly, because the data changed. And version control? Nice for building, but it's not like you'll ever go back in time anyway.
What's nice though is defining the data and then trying different layouts to see what works.
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For me personally, I found LaTeX to be the perfect solution. I have my resume tex setup so I can set toggles to define what gets output. E.g. applying for a manager position, I might keep it brief and more technical.
The resume is modular and can be updated by updating external txt files and not the LaTeX itself. It looks nice, is always consistent, has nice links, etc.
It's optimized for all the ATS nonsense it inevitably gets run through, it generates a PDF, and I've made it near impossible for recruiters to copy and paste and repurpose it without retyping much of it, and I have a tone of tech tricks in their like invisible text that automated systems might see.
If LaTeX itself is sufficient, I can't imagine needing to add in something like Nix and a webserver or how that would be better in any way.
Learning curve is a thing: I've never touched LaTeX, and I don't anticipate using it in the future. If I wanted to automate a thing as a learning project, I probably would rule out LaTeX unless I had a reason to want to learn it.
source: my resume is the only thing in LaTeX I've touched in over a decade
The reason is that it's one of the best tools suited to this kind of work.
Typst was much easier to setup and the function-based operation meant that sending variables in was a breeze with better error handling there too. Also, I just grok the syntax a lot better.
Just another option for folks looking to redo their resumes/not use Latex.
[0] https://typst.app
[1] https://resgen.app
I used this package [1] (see also the index [2] for more packages / templates).
--
1: https://github.com/talal/pesha
2: https://typst.app/universe/
Here’s a sparse copy of mine.
https://michaelwilly.com/cv/latex
I don’t want to share the git because my real resume has more details.
I learned tex during a degree, I can use it mainly for math notation but I’m not sure that I know it in and out for typesetting.
My resume now uses a template.tex and a main.tex file and I \\input sub section tex files so I can iterate using git.
Now I have spent quite a lot of time customizing LaTeX, to the point where people have come to ask how I produced certain documents, because it surely could not be LaTeX. If you have a specific design idea in your head, LaTeX is able to achieve it if you just spend enough time RTFMing.
Nix obviously isn't strictly necessary, but making a flake wasn't terribly hard and it's nice to keep stuff standardized between distros and macos.
[0] https://github.com/tneely/resume/blob/main/.github/workflows...
How did you do/test that? I help maintain (didn't author it originally) the AwesomeCV template; we have an open issue about this, inconsistent results and not really having a good way to test it.
I've found that I change job summaries so often, that automating it was a net negative in time spent on the thing. So now I just do the same as the digitally challenged: copy a Word file to "resume (DATE).docx" and change the contents as needed.
My younger self would be surprised, and slightly annoyed, at how often I use the "dumb" solutions for problems.
Data driven resume was my introduction to LaTeX and I had a great time building it.
There's a bunch of template you get for free by doing what everybody else is doing. The corporate world has those too, but for Word, because that's what they use.
There's this subconscious believe that something that has a steep learning curve will make things easier later on. That is not always true. If you want stuff that is more complex than normal, Word and LaTeX are about equally as annoying, if nobody solved it for you (templates, Google). LaTeX is just harder for the easy stuff too.
Doing my resume was the last thing I did in LaTeX, not the first. Doing anything in LaTeX just stopped being useful when the recipients didn't recognize Computer Modern anymore.
I - like OP - use JSON Resume [1]. Besides that I just have a Github Action which creates a PDF and also updates a web-based version [2] hosted in AWS S3. My favourite thing about this setup is that if I want to make a small change I can just log in to Github and commit a quick edit in the repo [3] through Github's web-based UI A new PDF is generated and the web-based version being updates automatically.
[1] https://jsonresume.org/
[2] http://geoff-clayton-cv.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/
[3] https://github.com/jefc1111/cv/tree/master
But you can just go to https://registry.jsonresume.org, login with github, create the gist, and then your resume is automatically "deployed". And it is stored on github gist, so data is yours, and has revisions as a nice added benefit.
I regret to say it but I found what looks like a typo - you've got "automcomplete" where I think you mean "autocomplete". I hope this helps improve your resume.
It's neither visually pleasing nor is it more easily readable than other CVs that I have seen.
It's fine for a CV to be visually ugly as long as its readable, or visually attractive in spite of being less readable. You can't fail at both dimensions.
If you're really happy with a CV that looks and reads like this, save yourself all the effort and make a RTF document instead.
That said, I never send the same resume to everyone. I tailor a resume for each job I apply to. This doesn't mean leaving off positions or lying. It does mean taking the work done in a position and giving it a slant toward the target job.
For example, let's say I created a web app that shows a sales dashboard, with stats visualization, from raw daily sales data.
Job 1 (applying for Front-End) - Created monthly sales dashboard web site using React, MaterialUI, SASS, Node, Riak, and D3. Dashboard provided grid-based summary over individual weeks, months, and years. It also provided configurable line graphs and pie charts for various sales metrics. Data pre-processing done with Sci-Kit. Later added sales prediction using Machine Learning.
Job 2 (applying for Data Analysis) - Analyzed raw daily sales data to determine data cleansing needed, and created tool pipeline using Python NumPy, SciKit, and scikit-learn. Integrated pipeline into Riak data source ingest, and then built sales dashboard web site to visualize the data. Provided ML model for sales prediction built with scikit-learn, with XX parameters. Model achieved YY accuracy with only a ZZ mean error.
Same work in both, but I highlight the tasks most relevant to the target job.
Other thoughts are that Latex is a good way to get a well laid out PDF resume (PDF is not the web, you should have two versions of your resume), and I agree with other commenters - the final product needs more polish if it was actually going to be used to produce a resume to send in (I think it's fine as a proof of concept though).
I first looked at Canva templates, but apparently nowadays you are supposed to do black/white and no fancy designs for ATS readability. Then I tried it with Google Docs b/w resumee template, which kinda got me to write actual skills. Then I approached the coach, got her template and iterated, and then I also added some rules from here (https://principiae.be/pdfs/ECV-1.01.pdf).
I also involved ChatGPT to analyze job postings and to get the mix of keywords in my resumme right. Tools like https://tagcrowd.com/ also help with that. For example, I am targeting 'IT analyst' roles, and it does make sense that I have the word 'analysis' a few times in my CV.
E: mine is basically structured the following way
Name
Title
Summary
3x5 ATS keywords/skills specific to my profile and role
last ten years, also written in a way that 'gamifies' ATS: 'Year, worked as ROLE at Company, did XYZ'
--page 2--
Education (degree + grades)
Skills Training
Languages
Some more IT skills (programming languages, project management, ...)
E2: I obviously have no idea what I am doing, but I got three interview proposals for 10 applications, so I guess 30%.
I've found that splitting data and representation is not as feasible as it sounds. You add a job and suddenly your CV doesn't fit on a page anymore, and cutting details from previous jobs isn't enough. So you change the layout, ever so slightly, because the data changed. And version control? Nice for building, but it's not like you'll ever go back in time anyway.
What's nice though is defining the data and then trying different layouts to see what works.