
Show HN: CakeResume – Drag and drop resume snippets to build a unique resume - trantor
https://www.cakeresume.com
======
StevePerkins
I hate the fact that so many of these resume generators only support
downloading as PDF.

Maybe (?) that works for the super-elite echelon who don't really have to "job
hunt", and who maintain a resume only as a formality. But for the other 95%+
of plebs who have to actively apply or work with recruiters... MS Word is the
only game in town, like it or not.

I loved the idea behind JSON Resume
([https://jsonresume.org](https://jsonresume.org)) a year ago (i.e. separate
the content from the styling, store the content in source control and track it
or branch as needed, and apply the content to whichever template you like).
But I didn't like the limited export capability... so I wrote Resume Fodder
([https://resumefodder.com](https://resumefodder.com)) as an open source
alternative. I'd love to create more template options when I have time... pull
requests welcomed!

The people behind these resume generators know that MS Word is what most
people need, but choose not to support it because that would undercut their
business model. The business model dream is for you to host your content on
their server, so they can mine it and sell access and hopefully cut off a
slice of LinkedIn's pie.

So be it, but I just don't think there is a viable business model there.
LinkedIn is already LinkedIn... and I suspect that smaller rivals will run
into the same wall as Diaspora, Ello, and all the other would-be Facebook
replacements. I think that people who check out these resume generators REALLY
are looking for... a resume generator! And if it doesn't let you save your
resume in the format that most people demand, then it isn't particularly
useful in the real world.

~~~
Freak_NL
> MS Word is the only game in town, like it or not.

That's stretching it. Most companies are totally fine with PDF these days, not
in the least because it is WYSIWYG for screen and print and just works. Looks
a lot more professional too; especially if you are looking for a job in IT.

When recruiters or temp agencies ask for Word documents, they want this
because then they can strip out all your personal data and pass the documents
on to the companies (their customers) looking for employees. With PDF they
need to do more work.

~~~
WGT
> they want this because then they can strip out all your personal data

This is correct. Agency employees are taught to remove contact info, apply
their own header, and trim the length (5 page maximum) before sending to
clients.

~~~
Tempest1981
I've seen recruiters pass along résumés in plain text format. Now it makes
sense -- copy/paste from PDF.

------
tedmiston
Personally I've gone all-in on the Stack Overflow CV / Developer Story (mine,
for example [1]). I'm exploring building the missing tooling to update
_everything else_ (LinkedIn, AngelList) from SO as the single source of truth.

Developer Story does have a PDF export but it's very limited to including
everything which is a bit heavy, and no UI customization right now.

I'd be more likely to explore a tool like CakeResume if they imported from an
SO CV i.e., if the cost of adoption was reduced. I think this reflects the
typical developer opinion on most resume generators.

I'm not saying SO has to be _the standard_ , it could be a JSON schema with
even more features, but we really need some standard.

[1]: [http://stackoverflow.com/cv/taylor](http://stackoverflow.com/cv/taylor)

~~~
gentleteblor
I'm a huge fan of the "single source of truth" approach. The actual content
(achievements, skills, education, past projects) should be "data" and we
should be able to generate the snazzy timelines, pretty resumes (the views)
with single clicks.

That's the approach i'm taking with JobRudder [1]. You enter your "data" and
we generate resumes, achievement reports, timelines etc. We're looking into
updating LinkedIn, posting to twitter (for those who like that) and other
integrations.

I'm happy more folks are thinking this way.

[1] [https://jobrudder.com](https://jobrudder.com)

~~~
danielvinson
I might be interested in this, but your website doesn't give me anywhere even
close to enough information to know what your product gives me. All I see is
one low-res screenshot and some sales lines that are reference what I can do,
not how it works. Most people in your target demo aren't going to commit to
signing up for something unless they know how much time they have to invest
and what they will get for that amount of time.

~~~
gentleteblor
That's fair. Thank you for the feedback and possible interest.

I've tried many varying levels of information (just a few weeks ago we had
multiple large screenshots and more text) and the feedback is always a bit
mixed (between those who think it's cluttered/dense and those who want more).
It's not right yet, but we're working on it. Maybe we'll switch to a video.

In the meantime, feel free to try it out (30 days free). No pressure.

EDIT: One other thing. What do you think would make it easier to get value
immediately? Starting with a resume you have now? LinkedIn?

Thanks again.

~~~
danielvinson
You're absolutely welcome. I don't think I'd be more likely to watch a video,
but having that option is likely to appeal to many people.

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awalGarg
When I click "Try Now", I get a modal to signup. Is there something specific
about this tool that requires signing-up first? Why can't we access it as is?
(I understand some reasons, but I feel they don't apply when you are doing a
"Show HN" of the beta version).

Otherwise looks nice, atleast in the images.

~~~
trantor
Thank you for the comment! Since I'd like to build a platform instead of just
a tool. I want to build a platform for people to share their passions. Resume
tool is just the begin.

~~~
newacc674
You want a platform, as a user I primarily want a tool, not a platform.

Maybe you got something useful to offer, but you need to demonstrate value
first before hassling me with that.

In our job application frontend we don't even require logins or passwords.
Only after you have finished your application and confirmed the privacy
agreement we send an email with a confirmation link, only then you can add a
password to follow the progress of the application, but even that is optional.

~~~
jonalmeida
> In our job application frontend we don't even require logins or passwords.
> Only after you have finished your application and confirmed the privacy
> agreement we send an email with a confirmation link, only then you can add a
> password to follow the progress of the application, but even that is
> optional.

I noticed smartrecruiters.com follow this format and it was such a pleasant
experience using it.

------
wingerlang
Looks nice from the landing page, but maybe a bit image-heavy for a resume
isn't it?

On the topic of resume building though, while I haven't had the need for
making one in a long time I have this idea I just want to throw out there.

Just make like an HTML page with every possible detail about your history.
Then, in e.g. Chrome, you can easily hide the different sections/words that
isn't related to the specific job you're applying for. Then print as PDF.
Seems like it would be easy to maintain and "generate" the resumes per
application.

~~~
JorgeGT
> Just make like an HTML page with every possible detail about your history.
> Then, in e.g. Chrome, you can easily hide the different sections

I do this in LaTeX. I have the full document and just comment out in the code
what I don't in each case before compiling the PDF. As it is a plain text file
I have it in a git repo so it's trivial to look for older versions or attach
tags to specific CV versions I've submitted.

~~~
sleepychu
+1 for LaTeX but the barrier to entry is so high. I use LaTeX for mine but I'm
always on the lookout for a 'nicer' markup language.

~~~
AlphaWeaver
LaTeX is a no brainer for anyone with a mind predisposed to programming... E.g
people in the software industry. It makes working with my CV a _piece of
cake!_

------
WhitneyLand
Trantor after thinking more about your site, I'm sure it's a mistake to
require registration before allowing them to feel how nice it is.

First, you could simply require the registration before allowing them to
export so you still capture the data.

Secondly, I'm afraid the usability and slickness are so nice that you will
lose more than gain by not letting people get a quick chance to see how good
it feels.

Glad I got that off my chest. My opinion and $1.85 will buy you a cup of
coffee at Starbucks, so fwiw.

------
darkhorn
I dunno. I like the standart EU CV.
[http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/documents/curriculum-
vitae](http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/documents/curriculum-vitae)

You can save it as XML if you want to update it later. You can email it as PDF
or .docx file. And it supports many languages.

------
metaprinter
I always thought it was best-practice to never include a photo of oneself on
their resume.

~~~
ohstopitu
I've seen a bunch of recent resumes - all of which include photos (nothing
dramatic, just a professional headshot).

I personally don't have it on my resume because I feel that it's un-necessary
and a bit unprofessional. But I can see it's appeal (there have been too many
instances where there's one person who does the phone interview and another
the in person interview)

~~~
obispoTed
>>But I can see it's appeal (there have been too many instances where there's
one person who does the phone interview and another the in person interview)

How does having a photo on a resume help prevent this? Are you referring to
the interviewer? (i.e one person who conducts the phone interview and another
the in person interview)

~~~
ohstopitu
having a photo helps you know who it is that you are interviewing (to an
extent...I look pretty different now compared to that on my passport (~4 yrs
old) if that's saying something :/)

But what I mean is, resumes get passed around (from HR to team lead etc.) and
having a photo helps identify the person being interviewed. (generally one
person does the first interview, followed by an technical interview done by
someone different - and it's very easy to get different people answer these
interviews till the very last in-person interview - infact, I've seen a couple
of friends do that at the big 4.)

I'm not saying that this will help but it's gives everyone a false sense of
security.

------
ameesdotme
Pretty interesting concept! I'd like to be able to add variables that are used
throughout snippets, so changing designs doesn't require me to re-enter a lot
of information.

~~~
trantor
Thank you @ameesdotme. We are also considering about this!

------
wccrawford
I expected to see the Experience sections listed in the dropdown, but instead
I just see "paragraph" and "list". I almost just clicked away from the site at
that point.

You should probably do a better job of calling out the things people expect to
put on a resume, instead of hiding them under generic non-resume terms.

~~~
trantor
Thank you! We'll change that :)

------
agounaris
What I don't like on resume generators is the fact that what they say about
being "unique" and "impress" is the exact opposite from what will happen if
suddenly everyone will start using them. All CVs will be the same
eventually....

------
jenskanis
Awesome little tool. I like the idea of drag&drop snippets, but every list
snippet has a fixed number of items. Why not one snippet with the ability to
add/remove list items? Moreover you can't easily replace snippets without
keeping the current information. Lots of copy/pasting involved.

~~~
trantor
Sure! We'll add this feature soon :) Thank you!

------
emirozer
Looks nice but gonna be a bit off topic and ranty, I really don't want to
bother about resumes and their formats anymore. Is it really not acceptable to
give a LinkedIn URL when asked for a resume, or as a recruiter if you see my
LinkedIn profile, why do you still ask a resume? I think it looks well enough
to replace any resume in any format, and its generally available. (of course
if you don't choose to limit it to only 1st level connections)

Farsighted Note: I am aware of PDF export feature, but its very ugly..

~~~
trantor
It's not ugly on Chrome! But for other browsers, still need some works to
optimize.

~~~
emirozer
Bit of a misunderstanding here, I was referring to LinkedIn's feature of
Export Profile as PDF

------
WhitneyLand
Sheesh modal/reg just to try it! You could allow some playing and collect
users 1 step later.

I like the idea. Your site looks great - clean and attractive. The animations
are enticing.

~~~
trantor
Thank you!!

------
gentleteblor
This looks good (i like the drag and drop mechanic).

I've spent a lot of time exploring and building career tools [1], and my
observation so far has been that "formatting and style" isn't the main problem
with resumes. Seem to me that most people struggle with "what" to put in a
resume and "how" (phrasing, concreteness etc) to put it.

Good luck and congrats on launching.

[1] [https://jobrudder.com](https://jobrudder.com)

------
pklausler
Grr. If your resume is the only resume in the world, then yes, it's _unique_.
Otherwise, the best you can do is _distinctive_.

~~~
oldrny
So this is definitely down to how you define the word, but by the above
definition, shouldn't Globally Unique Identifiers be called Globally
Distinctive Identifiers?

Also, because my brain has been damaged by modern programming languages, it
seems like uniqueness should be defined as (please excuse my rusty logic
syntax):

R = resumes, r \in R, unique(r) -> (\forall s \in R-{r}, r != s) (for some
definition of equality).

~~~
pklausler
A finite collection of distinct values constitutes a set.

A collection of unique values constitutes a set with exactly one element.

------
ohstopitu
I love this, would be possible to add in an HTML export functionality that I
could use to host on my website for example?

------
ozaark
Looks like a modified version of this:
[http://preview.codecanyon.net/item/html-builder-frontend-
ver...](http://preview.codecanyon.net/item/html-builder-frontend-
version/full_screen_preview/8432859?_ga=1.130507019.58206630.1478183643)

------
4rtemis
Resume generators are getting a little trope-ish. Personally, I just use
jsonresume's schema more or less to keep all my employment information. I
don't like their generators, too heavy and esoteric, personally. I just use
the JSON file.

My website is generated with a static website builder, hugo, and uses wkhtml
to generate an optional pdf. It just pulls a subset of what I want to display
from the exhaustive, version controlled json file. My entire website pulls
contact information, name, location, social media profiles etc information
from that one json file. It separates content and presentation and I keep it
all in one file. If I wanted two versions of the information, I just change
the html document and what I pull.

------
dinibal
Great idea! Would love to add this feature to my site.
[http://www.nocparequiredjobs.com](http://www.nocparequiredjobs.com)

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brosirmandude
Given the name I really thought this was going to be a service that puts your
resume onto a cake and sends that cake to a company you want an interview at.

~~~
trantor
Interesting. We might consider introducing this service on that fool's day..

------
josh_carterPDX
I'm really surprised this is the first tool I've seen like this. Makes perfect
sense. Love the interface. Awesome work. :)

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krupalshah55
Most resume builders are not popular because they ask for money for some
designs. I hope that does not happen with this one.

------
SippinLean
Cool. I tried to "try it now" but got some modal instead, so obviously I then
closed the window instantly.

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arc_of_descent
I like the website. Haven't tried it out yet.

I usually just whip up a good looking HTML page and then use wkhtmltopdf :p

------
mnw21cam
Web site doesn't make much sense. What's it about? What's being resumed?

~~~
petecooper
This might help explain things -- it's a résumé site:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Résumé](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Résumé)

------
dominotw
Facebook login seems to be broken. I get 'application error'.

------
WA
Can I download the final resume as a standalone HTML website too?

~~~
trantor
You get a standalone webpage after you publish your resume. If you want the
html code, simply save the page :)

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anotheryou
Looks like a generic wordpress theme

------
arkitaip
(Oooh, I want to call this Cakesume so badly..!)

