6 ms·

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I feel like LaTeX is not an efficient way to create a resume, unless you are very skilled with LaTeX macros and can essent

by Wehrdo 9y ago

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I feel like LaTeX is not an efficient way to create a resume, unless you are very skilled with LaTeX macros and can essentially create your own "template", or modify someone else's. If you don't have those skills, you end up with a very bland, "stock LaTeX document"-looking resume, of which half the LaTeX resumes I see people share look like. I once tried to redo my resume in LaTeX, and after finding a decent-looking template, spent a lot of time fighting it to do simple things that weren't built in, like add my GPA to my school listing. In the Limecv template, what if I don't want the "stats" bars? Better go browse through a 2000-line template that I didn't write to figure out how to remove them. I ended up actually doing my resume in HTML/CSS, which provided me the flexibility to lay things out exactly how I wanted, which was quite nice. The main difficulty I had was getting a consistent PDF layout, as Chrome's PDF print is pretty much a black box that you have no control over.

michaelmior 9y ago
While some LaTeX templates are more unwieldy, in the case of Limecv, if you don't want the stats bars, just don't include the macro that adds them. It's not always so terrible.
username223 9y ago
Speaking as someone with a LaTeX résumé, I agree with you. I use it because it's the typesetting tool with which I am most comfortable, not because it's the best tool for the job. I would never use HTML/CSS to create a résumé, but that's because I am bad at using them.
- benou 9y ago
  I "ported" moderncv LaTeX style in simple XHTML/CSS a while ago here: http://www.benou.fr/~ben/cv/cv.en.ganne.html http://www.benou.fr/~ben/cv/cv.en.ganne.html Feel free to clone it if you find it useful. I use both moderncv for PDF and this for web-based resume.
  - IvanAnishchuk 9y ago
    I wanted to make something like for a while. I'd use a reportlab-based generator though and Jinja2 templates. Ideally, I want something that can generate both compliant and optimized HTML and a PDF, while having easily hackable style sheets and stuff. I'd add just a little bit of Python code to make it easy to add new stuff (new skills, new experience, etc.) and generate CVs with different highlights from the same data and templates (I used to have one for my primary stuff, one concentrating on devops stuff, one for immigration purposes, and yet another one for something I don't remember — it's hard to keep them all up to date when you mostly use just one). Would be a cool project one day, for now I'll just keep using LaTeX. I've moved past ModernCV though. Too many people are using it nowadays :)
taeric 9y ago
The part that has been highly efficient for me, is that I can still build my resume today. Adding to it will not break it, and it is just editing a text file then running make. Printing it next year will print the same as this year. Stability is very comfortable.
abritinthebay 9y ago
LaTeX is not an efficient way to create anything. But, to be fair, it's not supposed to be efficient - it's supposed to be consistent. But I really wish it was less painful to use.
- pmiller2 9y ago
  It's a very efficient way to typeset good looking mathematics. Of course, that's no surprise, because that's what it was built for.
  - abritinthebay 9y ago
    I’d argue it’s effective, not efficient, there. But that might be splitting semantic hairs
    - lorenzhs 9y ago
      Like so many tools that originate in that time, it is very efficient after an initial learning curve. I use LaTeX to typeset theoretical CS things (papers, exercise sheets, ...), and those often contain a fair amount of mathematical notation. Expressing them in LaTeX math notation comes quite naturally to me now and doesn't require much thought at all. And when I do miss some symbol, there are excellent tools like http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html.
      - abritinthebay 9y ago
        I’m curious - what’s your definition of efficiency here? I would include learning time in that, plus cognitive load, and it’s clear you are not.
  - IvanAnishchuk 9y ago
    Not just maths. It can be used to typeset books on any topics quite well, I did it for while a few years back. Text format makes it easy to convert any sources to it, and if you don't need many formulae nor tables/figures typesetting becomes pretty trivial. And unlike visual typesetting tools you almost can make an error of moving some guide too far or something, if you say 10mm margin it'll be a 10mm margin (visual tools have their use, I guess, just not when you're a geek and prefers to see code and not a picture). And it even warns you about underfilling/overfilling, what's not to love? And speaking of word/openoffice/google docs. Those are text processing tools, not typesetting ones. If you need typesetting on any complexity their are the absolute worst choice. If your CV has a very simple structure and style, on the other hand, sure, go ahead. I wonder if any tech recruiters notice this kind of things... If I wanted to hire nerds, I'd surely notice. CV made in word, marked with "not geek enough" :)
sjy 9y ago
I agree. I love LaTeX and spent many hours building a YAML/Markdown document that could be compiled to PDF with a custom LaTeX template, or HTML with custom CSS. But after using that for a year or two, I switched back to Word because it was just too painful trying to get the document to fit nicely on two pages without a WYSIWYG editor.
on_and_off 9y ago
I used to write my resume in Latex. It is pretty satisfying to code and then compile a document and Latex does amazing things with a document. However it has become more and more painful to edit it. I have moved to a simple Google Document 3 years ago. Reasons : - I dont really need all these advanced Latex features, I am not writing a maths book. - Docs has everything I need in order to make a resume (tbh I have considered doing it in Photoshop to have more graphical flair but never spent the time to do so) - I can get feedback directly in the docs. I am not going to spend the time to do it in Latex again
LambdaComplex 9y ago
>unless you...can essentially create your own "template" This is pretty much what I did. I've learned exactly enough LaTeX to write my resume (and I'm happy with it). I tried using res.cls (which was recommended elsewhere in these comments) and I didn't like it. It was very opinionated, offering only a few different pre-defined layouts. Using a different layout would've involved modifying the class file, which was more than I could handle as a beginner. Writing my own class file from scratch (with help from some tutorials) was a lot easier.
IvanAnishchuk 9y ago
I disagree. I never really used anything but LaTeX/XeLaTeX to generate my CVs but I've seen what people make in text processors and it usually sucks. On the other hand, I agree, open source templates are rarely the best — and unless they are very generic I'd suggest not to use them verbatim. You don't want your CV to look like the other 50 in the pile (yet you don't want it to look too weird either).
tincholio 9y ago
Funny, but I actually ended up writing my own LaTeX class ( https://github.com/mvarela/orbit-cv https://github.com/mvarela/orbit-cv ) to reproduce a Hugo-based résumé for which print to PDF worked horribly bad. I probably spent more time trying to find the way to print it to PDF than to whip up the first iteration of the LaTeX class.

by Wehrdo 9y ago

michaelmior 9y ago

While some LaTeX templates are more unwieldy, in the case of Limecv, if you don't want the stats bars, just don't include the macro that adds them. It's not always so terrible.

username223 9y ago

Speaking as someone with a LaTeX résumé, I agree with you. I use it because it's the typesetting tool with which I am most comfortable, not because it's the best tool for the job. I would never use HTML/CSS to create a résumé, but that's because I am bad at using them.

benou 9y ago
I "ported" moderncv LaTeX style in simple XHTML/CSS a while ago here: http://www.benou.fr/~ben/cv/cv.en.ganne.html http://www.benou.fr/~ben/cv/cv.en.ganne.html Feel free to clone it if you find it useful. I use both moderncv for PDF and this for web-based resume.
- IvanAnishchuk 9y ago
  I wanted to make something like for a while. I'd use a reportlab-based generator though and Jinja2 templates. Ideally, I want something that can generate both compliant and optimized HTML and a PDF, while having easily hackable style sheets and stuff. I'd add just a little bit of Python code to make it easy to add new stuff (new skills, new experience, etc.) and generate CVs with different highlights from the same data and templates (I used to have one for my primary stuff, one concentrating on devops stuff, one for immigration purposes, and yet another one for something I don't remember — it's hard to keep them all up to date when you mostly use just one). Would be a cool project one day, for now I'll just keep using LaTeX. I've moved past ModernCV though. Too many people are using it nowadays :)

taeric 9y ago

The part that has been highly efficient for me, is that I can still build my resume today. Adding to it will not break it, and it is just editing a text file then running make. Printing it next year will print the same as this year. Stability is very comfortable.

abritinthebay 9y ago

LaTeX is not an efficient way to create anything. But, to be fair, it's not supposed to be efficient - it's supposed to be consistent. But I really wish it was less painful to use.

pmiller2 9y ago
It's a very efficient way to typeset good looking mathematics. Of course, that's no surprise, because that's what it was built for.
- abritinthebay 9y ago
  I’d argue it’s effective, not efficient, there. But that might be splitting semantic hairs
  - lorenzhs 9y ago
    Like so many tools that originate in that time, it is very efficient after an initial learning curve. I use LaTeX to typeset theoretical CS things (papers, exercise sheets, ...), and those often contain a fair amount of mathematical notation. Expressing them in LaTeX math notation comes quite naturally to me now and doesn't require much thought at all. And when I do miss some symbol, there are excellent tools like http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html.
    - abritinthebay 9y ago
      I’m curious - what’s your definition of efficiency here? I would include learning time in that, plus cognitive load, and it’s clear you are not.
- IvanAnishchuk 9y ago
  Not just maths. It can be used to typeset books on any topics quite well, I did it for while a few years back. Text format makes it easy to convert any sources to it, and if you don't need many formulae nor tables/figures typesetting becomes pretty trivial. And unlike visual typesetting tools you almost can make an error of moving some guide too far or something, if you say 10mm margin it'll be a 10mm margin (visual tools have their use, I guess, just not when you're a geek and prefers to see code and not a picture). And it even warns you about underfilling/overfilling, what's not to love? And speaking of word/openoffice/google docs. Those are text processing tools, not typesetting ones. If you need typesetting on any complexity their are the absolute worst choice. If your CV has a very simple structure and style, on the other hand, sure, go ahead. I wonder if any tech recruiters notice this kind of things... If I wanted to hire nerds, I'd surely notice. CV made in word, marked with "not geek enough" :)

sjy 9y ago

I agree. I love LaTeX and spent many hours building a YAML/Markdown document that could be compiled to PDF with a custom LaTeX template, or HTML with custom CSS. But after using that for a year or two, I switched back to Word because it was just too painful trying to get the document to fit nicely on two pages without a WYSIWYG editor.

on_and_off 9y ago

I used to write my resume in Latex. It is pretty satisfying to code and then compile a document and Latex does amazing things with a document. However it has become more and more painful to edit it. I have moved to a simple Google Document 3 years ago. Reasons : - I dont really need all these advanced Latex features, I am not writing a maths book. - Docs has everything I need in order to make a resume (tbh I have considered doing it in Photoshop to have more graphical flair but never spent the time to do so) - I can get feedback directly in the docs. I am not going to spend the time to do it in Latex again

LambdaComplex 9y ago

>unless you...can essentially create your own "template" This is pretty much what I did. I've learned exactly enough LaTeX to write my resume (and I'm happy with it). I tried using res.cls (which was recommended elsewhere in these comments) and I didn't like it. It was very opinionated, offering only a few different pre-defined layouts. Using a different layout would've involved modifying the class file, which was more than I could handle as a beginner. Writing my own class file from scratch (with help from some tutorials) was a lot easier.

IvanAnishchuk 9y ago

I disagree. I never really used anything but LaTeX/XeLaTeX to generate my CVs but I've seen what people make in text processors and it usually sucks. On the other hand, I agree, open source templates are rarely the best — and unless they are very generic I'd suggest not to use them verbatim. You don't want your CV to look like the other 50 in the pile (yet you don't want it to look too weird either).

tincholio 9y ago

Funny, but I actually ended up writing my own LaTeX class ( https://github.com/mvarela/orbit-cv https://github.com/mvarela/orbit-cv ) to reproduce a Hugo-based résumé for which print to PDF worked horribly bad. I probably spent more time trying to find the way to print it to PDF than to whip up the first iteration of the LaTeX class.