
Show HN: Simple and elegant Markdown-based resumes - awalGarg
https://github.com/awalGarg/cv-maker/
======
luso_brazilian
For those in Europe this is already a solved problem: Europass [1]

A service kindly provided by the European Centre for the Development of
Vocational Training [2] a European Union's agency.

It has a CV builder and outputs an standardized PDF that can even be fed back
into the builder for further updates.

It is a joy when going through a pile of CVs to read the ones built by that
tool, makes the job a lot easier because it allows the applicant to focus on
the relevant data instead of on the layout. Better for the RH, better for the
applicant, win win all around.

[1]
[https://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/en/home](https://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/en/home)

[2] [http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/](http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/)

~~~
Peroni
FWIW: Europass CV's generally don't go down well with employers. There's an
unfair stigma attached to Europass CV's as the candidates are perceived to be
of inferior quality.

~~~
luso_brazilian
Speaking as an employer: both receiving one through the regular channels and
via recruitment agencies I've never seen anyone perceive Europass as anything
like you mentioned.

Maybe it varies from location to location or with the area of expertise but
Europass are pretty much ubiquitous around here.

~~~
rodelrod
Also speaking as an employer, with the exact same mixed origin as you (judging
by your handle!) but working in another European country: Europass CVs are
poorly formatted (cut-off tables, meaningless whitespace, poor typography,)
too long, too formalistic and fail to put forward the relevant information.
Curiously, I only ever got them from recent graduates coming from our home
country.

EDIT:typo

~~~
alexandrerond
It's not a Europass CV problem if it's too long or doesn't put the relevant
information forward. That's the applicant's problem imho.

Europass is awesome. Perhaps not perfect but the original aim was to have a
standard format for the EU and leave behind all the local national rules of
how-a-cv-is-expected-to-be.

Also, I can't help to think that you must suck as a recruiter/interviewer if
you draw conclusions from the tool that the applicant used to generate a CV,
rather than by its contents.

------
SixSigma
Resume tip : don't say "I was responsible for ...."

use the STAR system : Situation, Task, Action, Results

While I was part of the Transport Team I reviewed the delivery schedules by
analysing historic data in Excel. I was able to reduce transport costs by 10%
per year and increase utilisation by 3%.

Don't be afraid of : we found that there were no improvements possible which
resulted in no extra spending for the coming year.

~~~
cableshaft
So what if you were part of a failed startup? You did your job, and did your
job pretty well, but the actual products failed to find its audience due to
factors (mostly) outside of your control, since you weren't making the
decisions on what to make or how to market it?

How do you use STAR to not make that sound bad? I think I currently say I
delivered the projects on time and on budget and talk about what I was
responsible for, and I know I personally gained a lot of experience from the
projects, but every time I see STAR suggested, I'm like "Well, if I did that,
I'd basically have to say that my work resulted in the company losing money
and ultimately folding."

I get plenty of attention for my resume as it is, it just always bugged me
when people suggest STAR as if it's the only way to write a job description on
a resume.

~~~
braythwayt
_Situation_ :

When I replaced the VP of Engineering at BloatCo, it had 4,000 engineers,
producing a mediocre social media product that was roundly criticized for such
failures as being unable to edit posts and having no control over online
harassment.

 _Task_ :

Cut costs and get the product and feature pipeline flowing.

 _Action_ :

Implemented a thorough review of functional teams, engaging both front-line
management and customer representatives to distinguish the individual and
practices that were delivering value from those who weren’t.

Established a customer council, including social activist and freedom of
speech advocates, to advise on anti-harassment policies.

 _Result_ :

After a painful transition lasting two quarters, we are reviving public kudos
on new features and our reputation as a tool for scumbags has been turned
around.

Our burn rate is down by 40% in engineering, proving that sometimes, you can
cut costs and increase production.

 _post scriptum_ :

Alas, this did not increase any advertising revenue, so the company was sold
to Yahoo, who fired me and are rewriting everything in Perl 6. But fixing
those problems were outside of the scope of my authority.

~~~
cableshaft
Very amusing and informative. I think I can incorporate some of this in my
resume in the future, thanks. Also it should help me organize my thoughts for
job interviews.

------
dkhenry
Looks good, I wonder how it compares to
[https://jsonresume.org/](https://jsonresume.org/)

One of the things I liked about jsonresume is I could separate the data from
the layout.

~~~
ytjohn
I've had my resume in markdown for a long time, but I have plans to convert it
to json resume format as I feel that is the better approach long term.

------
cies
When I think "elegant text", I think Tex. My resume is in Tex (fork it and
your may be too). And do not forget to use Sharelatex and you are not
installing any software to get a nicely typeset PDF resume.

[https://github.com/cies/resume](https://github.com/cies/resume)

~~~
mnw21cam
Yeah, another comment (now dead) asks what you do when someone asks for a Word
format version.

My CV (I think that's what you're all talking about - took a little while to
work out you weren't actually resuming anything) is in LaTeX format. Places
regularly got confused with being sent a PDF, and demanded Word instead, so I
would just convert each page to a bitmap and load into a Word document as an
image. Inelegant, but functional.

Back in the days when I was applying via job agencies, I even had one complain
that there was something "wrong" with my Word document, as they couldn't work
out how to edit any of it. I told them I thought that was a feature, not a
bug.

~~~
jrowley
I don't think I've ever had a place ask me for my resume in word format. The
closest is a Microsoft interview where they sent me some forms in docx format
that I had to send back filled in.

Also you can do some basic conversion from Tex to word using pandoc
[http://pandoc.org/](http://pandoc.org/)

~~~
RussianCow
I've had a recruiter ask for a Word version of my CV so that he could make
minor edits to it for each relevant position, which makes sense. Otherwise, I
don't think there's an excuse for not accepting a PDF.

~~~
TranquilMarmot
My previous position I got through a recruiter. Demanded my resume in a Word,
which ended up being a butchered and ugly version of my beautiful LaTeX-
generated PDF. I understood that he was going to make a few edits, but about a
year later I was going through some documents and managed to find the copy of
the Word resume that he had made changes to. DRASTIC changes.

He had _completely_ re-written huge chunks of my previous experience, changed
the order of things to make me look like I had experience in areas that I
definitely did not, and countless other minor changes. I couldn't believe it.
His native language was definitely not English, so all of his changes had
horrible spelling and grammar mistakes peppered in.

In the end I got the job, but only one other person had applied besides myself
and the government agency the job was for desperately needed a body to fill a
seat so I was kind of hired by default. Ended up being a crazy mess of a
programming shop that I brought a bit of order to before leaving.

------
awjr
I have to say that although interesting, you're still in a situation where
potential employers will print off copies of your CV and hand them around for
people to comment on.

The golden rule I stick to is your CV (excluding detailed work history) should
fit on one page. I'm not sure this supports this.

~~~
ricksplat
I go for two pages (two sides of a single page) myself. But I think US
_resumes_ are a slightly different concept that goes into exhaustive detail
about work history. As somebody that has acted as hiring manager in the past,
I definitely preferred the shorter _curriculum vitae_ format - it shows
attention to detail and an understanding of what is relevant to the job at
hand. I have had feedback on my own CV from time to time that it didn't go
into enough detail, so it's horses for courses I suppose ...

~~~
Jemmeh
You've got it backwards. Resumes are typically one page. CVs are detailed. In
the USA most places will ask for a one page resume. I've noticed some tech
companies want a longer resume or a CV though.

[http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/cv-vs-resume-difference-
an...](http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/cv-vs-resume-difference-and-when-use-
which/)

------
chrisdotcode
Hey, guys! I'm one of the core collaborators for JSON Resume[0], an
alternative to this project.

Markdown is cool, but as scrollaway said,

> JSON Resume wants to standardize CV fields to improve compatibility between
> tools, ease conversion, ease theming and such.

In fact, we have a notion of "themes", and this sort of markdown-based format
can be generated _from_ your JSONResume. We think that JSON is a saner default
interchange format than markdown.

If you've been following JSONResume development, you might have thought the
project died, but myself, along with @aloisdg and others are reviving it and
working towards a stable v1.0.0 release. Feel free to suggest changes and make
PRs :)

[0] - [https://github.com/jsonresume](https://github.com/jsonresume)

------
brianzelip
tl;dr - It is a web app that turns form input into a downloadable markdown
file.

There is a demo w/ live preview that displays the markdown with Bootstrap css.
Here's a screenshot, [http://imgur.com/qCM0yo2](http://imgur.com/qCM0yo2)

The author provides a gist that shows the markdown displayed in GitHub's css,
[https://gist.github.com/awalGarg/a8e97b27b249f2c94f8e](https://gist.github.com/awalGarg/a8e97b27b249f2c94f8e)

------
mrweasel
Apparently we have very different opinions as to what constitutes elegant. I
would call the example messy and confusing.

~~~
thenipper
Echoing what a lot of other folks are saying the design of the resume isn't
great. Note I don't work hiring programmers but a portion of my job is in
recruiting.

\- It is hard to scan. Often times a recruiter will be scanning through 100+
resumes. The fact that it doesn't follow the 'standard' format of resumes
makes me have to break out of my usual pattern of how I'd scan a resume.

\- I don't care about what you're reading. Sorry but it's true. I kind of
don't care about your blog posts. I'm not going to click on the links though.
I might if you make it past the initial screen.

\- I do like the skill sets under each job. That's handy. I don't care for
'favorites'. Just tell me what you know how to do preferably in a more concise
manner.

\- Don't give me three emails on how to contact you. I'm a tired stressed out
recruiter I don't wanna play a game on which email I think you'll respond to.

"Don't make me think" is just as valid as it is for hiring as it is for web
design. Help the recruiter make the case as to why you're a great hire. I
don't think that the non-standard formatting helps with that.

~~~
cpt1138
Sorry this reply screams "I don't care, I'm tired, I'm stressed, don't make me
think." What exactly is your value here? All you're doing is fitting a cog in
the machinery.

Since my impression is that a good developer can deal with any situation
necessary, I never understood the laundry list of technologies way of fitting
a candidate to a "good hire."

We know this is the reality of recruiters. Maybe on HN do a better job of
selling the industry of tired, stressed, people that don't care working to
fill a slot.

~~~
coldtea
> _Sorry this reply screams "I don't care, I'm tired, I'm stressed, don't make
> me think."_

Well, if you're expecting anything else from a recruiter being send your
resume you'll be in for a hard surprise.

The inverse is "I couldn't put in the time to make my CV tidy and intuitive,
but you'll have to soldier thru it, because I have the mistaken opinion that
I'm a unique snowflake and you don't get hundreds of them".

In fact, "don't make me think" is a GREAT advice for anything you want others
to read/try/adopt/buy.

[http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-
Usability/dp/032134...](http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-
Usability/dp/0321344758)

> _Since my impression is that a good developer can deal with any situation
> necessary, I never understood the laundry list of technologies way of
> fitting a candidate to a "good hire."_

Even if a good C++ game developer could switch to Javascript front-end
development if needed (to give an extreme example), the time it takes to have
them familiar with the relevant stack is better spent hiring someone already
familiar. And, it's kind of obvious -- both can be just as good. It's just the
second is also ready to hit the ground running on the stack a company uses.

And, of course, just because someone "can deal with any situation necessary"
doesn't mean they'd like to. Some programmers like to program in X or Y
languages (or language families), others like building Z or K kind of
programs.

Just because someone could switch from Haskell to Ruby or from scientific
programming to CRUDs doesn't mean they'd also like to. In this case the
"laundry list" serves as a way to match hires that are interested in the
specific things the company works with.

~~~
blakeyrat
Agreed. I've put out a lot of fires in badly-written Ruby code, and at least 2
in badly-written Python code, but I couldn't stand working 8 hours a day with
either of those languages.

So while my knowing them is definitely valuable, I need some way to convey,
"hey I know Ruby, but no I don't _like_ Ruby and I wouldn't accept a position
that was primarily Ruby." ("Favorite" isn't a good word for that, but that's
the intent I'm needing to convey.)

------
hellofunk
A markdown resume certainly could look simple and elegant, but this tool is
nowhere near it.

------
dfrey
Obligatory post about how the WTFPL is a poor license choice.

------
mwhite
Obligatory link to my Markdown resume which converts to PDF (via LaTeX) and
HTML using Pandoc:

[https://github.com/mwhite/resume](https://github.com/mwhite/resume)

------
verusfossa
I use fluentcv-cli[0]. Works well, used to be hackmyresume I think.

[0][https://www.npmjs.com/package/fluentcv](https://www.npmjs.com/package/fluentcv)

------
ryan42
I've used Markdown Resume Builder before
([http://there4development.com/markdown-
resume/](http://there4development.com/markdown-resume/)) and aside from
sometimes fighting with a few layout issues it is great.

From a markdown source file it produces a pretty clean PDF/html version of my
resume and can choose from multiple preset styles.

------
jcadam
The site is broken for me in Chrome. Though in any case, I prefer to use LaTeX
for my resume -- can't imagine markdown beating that.

~~~
muzani
I like LaTeX but it was very tedious for resumes. With resumes, you sometimes
want to change the format entirely. LaTeX is great for a consistent format,
not so much when experimenting.

Markdown also has the benefit of giving you an up to date plaintext resume. I
like that a lot, considering a lot of job sites like to automatically (and
poorly) convert PDF into plaintext.

~~~
mnw21cam
So LaTeX is perfect for that, since you can change the entire format by
changing the content of a function. You did mark up all your entries as
function calls, didn't you?

------
andreineculau
I miss the point with this entirely, but for those that are looking for a
"input markdown -> output web-friendly/pdf-friendly resumé" head over to my CV
repository at
[https://github.com/andreineculau/cv](https://github.com/andreineculau/cv) and
fork it!

------
cjauvin
The markdown-to-pdf resume toolchain I'm currently using is:

(1) Render with
[https://github.com/joeyespo/grip](https://github.com/joeyespo/grip) (with a
few minor CSS tweaks)

(2) "Print" to PDF with Chrome

The documents it produces are quite sober, but I find it works very well.

------
darkhorn
[https://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/en/home](https://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/en/home)
you can export it as xml and you can upload it later to update. It sends you a
pdf or word file to your email if you want.

------
victorantos
A server side implementation(C#) would be nice. I am considering to add this
for an angularjs job board [1]

[1]
[https://angjobs.com/#!/jobs/inbox/hn](https://angjobs.com/#!/jobs/inbox/hn)

------
tholford
Shameless plug for an opinionated pure HTML / CSS resume template:

[https://github.com/tomholford/html-resume-
template](https://github.com/tomholford/html-resume-template)

open to feedback and PRs :)

------
kmfrk
I want to like this, but I don't think it adds anything; you might as well
just go with YAML at that point.

As an accessibility obsessive, I really don't like the idea of using `code`
tags for decorative purposes.

------
rndstr
503
[https://rawgit.com/gwendall/way.js/master/way.min.js](https://rawgit.com/gwendall/way.js/master/way.min.js)

~~~
awalGarg
I have switched to the cdn url
([https://cdn.rawgit.com/gwendall/way.js/master/way.min.js](https://cdn.rawgit.com/gwendall/way.js/master/way.min.js)).
Please let me know if the issue persists, thanks!

------
canthonytucci
Love it.

Back in 2012 I asked @gruber on twitter if he thought it was ok to submit a
resume in markdown, his response was:

"For the right kind of job, I’d wager it’s an advantage to submit in
Markdown."

------
zubairq
Europe also has NemCV.com. Already in Denmark it is the largest resume
provider and has now expanded into Sweden, UK, and Germany soon

------
xigency
Not to brag, but I have a pretty well put together resume in HTML:
[http://greg.team-duck.com/resume.html](http://greg.team-duck.com/resume.html)

While almost no one accepts .html as a resumé format and it's difficult to
convert to .pdf or .docx seamlessly, it works pretty well for converting to
.txt for some job applications.

I've thought about making a simple resume builder for this format.

~~~
ricardobeat
I find that format quite heavy, would move education to bottom, trim down each
job to tangible achievements/projects completed ("delivered project X using Y"
vs "improved features"), remove all stamps & logos, and do away with honors
and awards - recruiters in software development are unlikely to be impressed
by those unless it's something really big. That would help increase signal vs
noise ratio.

Granted, the type of CVs I usually look through are for a slightly different
skill set but I believe the same reasoning applies.

------
nickthemagicman
I really wish this would just output to a json string. Then we can put it
through whatever engines we want.

------
user8341116
These all look pretty terrible tbh fam

------
sandworm101
A developer who lacks the communication skills necessary to write a resume by
hand isn't worth having. They may be great at what they do, but everyone needs
to be able to communicate effectively.

Any HR department that relies on automated tools, that only reads resumes that
match a profile dictated by the needs of an automated reading machine, isn't
doing its job. If they are getting too many useless resumes that they need
robot to read them, they need to better describe the offerings and/or
broadcast to a more focused audience.

Announcing jobs to everyone in the world and sifting through the millions of
applicants with a machine might make you feel good, it might make you think
you are finding the diamond in the rough, but in reality you are selecting
candidates almost by lottery.

~~~
awalGarg
Sorry but I have to disagree with this. Just because I am using a tool to do
something doesn't mean I lack the skills to do that thing without the tool.
IMHO, it is entirely justified to use as many tools as you want and not do
things "by hand" if that saves you time and increases efficiency.

As for this specific case, note that the user still would write stuff in
sections detailing his/her profile or experience/education etc (which all take
markdown as is). The app only really helps with generating the markdown in a
pre-structured format, which is easy to edit as well.

~~~
sandworm101
I said not doing the job, nothing about lacking the skills. If HR people are
reliant upon mechanical means to read resumes then that is a problem. Maybe
the people aren't efficient, maybe their approach to offerings is to broad, or
maybe the department is simply understaffed. To say that a department isn't
doing its job isn't to say anything about the people in said.

------
mbrutsch
Please excuse my questions, I'm old and slow... I see where I can try it
myself, can I see one already done (before investing the time to download and
try it myself)? As an hourly contractor, everything is a tradeoff w/billable
hours.

~~~
awalGarg
Apologies but I didn't understand that very well. If you mean where you can
see an example CV made from the app, you can checkout mine at
[https://gist.github.com/awalGarg/a8e97b27b249f2c94f8e](https://gist.github.com/awalGarg/a8e97b27b249f2c94f8e)

I will add a url in the readme as well, thanks!

~~~
mbrutsch
Interesting, thank you.

------
seivan
Not an expert, correct me if I am wrong here. But I've wrestled with something
similar.

Be careful not to use REM for font-sizes as @Print ignores them, if you must
(and obviously I/Brain must) you could get around by using % (so 1.5 REM ->
150%). Make sure to set font-size on both body and html.

Also, not sure how to explain it, but if you open up a PDF in Preview, and
select print. You might get a different size/layout and some design issues
there. So always double check, but be careful not to use the Printed (Saved
from Preview.app) as it disables links.

Don't spend any time on CSS transitions, as a PDF won't show them(?) (yep,
sigh)

Also watch out for printers adding margins both top/bottom and sides.

------
EGreg
What would you guys want to see in a blogging platform?

Markdown or WYSIWYG? Or both somehow?

Git for source control? Or versioning and diffs like wordpress?

Themes? Purely css or something more, less secure? How would you want to host
it and customize it?

Would you want any social features besides roles and permissions? Such as
quoting content from others, or pingbacks or something?

Finally, generate static files or just cache heavily? I think the latter is
better but a script can exist to generate the former on environments where
caching infrastructure isn't very robust.

Comments - here I would just say use third party javascript based stuff and
plop it on the page.

It's kind of related to this post but I have built a framework where I could
probably make a blogging app like Wordpress in a week.

~~~
defiblep
Please God, no more blogging platforms....

