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# CV Boilerplate
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> I consider LaTeX resumes to be a secret handshake of sorts, something that makes me significantly more likely to be inclined to hire a candidate.
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> —<cite>[zackelan](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10452606)<cite> on HN
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A boilerplate to ease the pain of building and maintaining a CV or résumé using LaTeX.
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## Intro
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Separating presentation from content makes life easier. The typical content of a CV is a perfect fit for a YAML file due to its structured nature:
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```YAML
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---
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name: Friedrich Nietzsche
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address:
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- Humboldtstraße 36
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- 99425 Weimar
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- Prussia
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email: friedrich@thevoid.de
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# ...
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experience:
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- years: 1879--1889
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employer: Freiberufler
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job: Freier Philisoph
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city: Sils-Maria
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- years: 1869–-1879
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employer: Universität Basel
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job: Professor für klassische Philologie
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city: Basel
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```
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That makes super easy to update a CV while keeping a consistent structure.
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Thanks to [pandoc](http://pandoc.org/), we can then access our data from `template.tex` using a special notation. Iterating on repetitive data structures becomes trivial:
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```latex
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$for(experience)$
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$experience.years$\\
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\textsc{$experience.employer$}\\
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\emph{$experience.job$}\\
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$experience.city$\\[.2cm]
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$endfor$
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```
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LaTeX takes then care of the typesetting with its usual elegance. Below a preview of the final result. Check out the [output](output.pdf) to see the compiled PDF.
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With this method, you can keep your entire CV encoded in a single YAML file, put it under version control (into a gist, for instance), and generate a PDF on the fly when needed. You can also easily export it to other formats, like HTML for web publishing (I've heard [Jekyll](http://jekyllrb.com/) likes YAML). Convenient, portable and time-proof.
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## Dependencies
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1. LaTeX with the following extra packages: `fontspec` `geometry` `multicol` `xunicode` `xltxtra` `marginnote` `sectsty` `ulem` `hyperref` `polyglossia`
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2. [Pandoc](http://pandoc.org/), the universal document converter.
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To install LaTeX on Mac OS X, I recommend getting the smaller version BasicTeX from [here](https://tug.org/mactex/morepackages.html) and installing the additional packages with `tlmgr` afterwards. Same goes for Linux: install `texlive-base` with your package manager and add the needed additional packages later.
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To install pandoc on Mac OS X, run `brew install pandoc`. To install it on Linux, refer to the [official docs](http://pandoc.org/installing.html).
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## Getting started
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1. Fill `details.yml` with your personal details, work experience, education, and desired settings.
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2. Run `make` to compile the PDF.
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3. Tweak on `template.tex` until you're satisfied with the result.
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**Note**: this template needs to be compiled with XeTeX.
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### Note for Windows users
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Although I didn't test it, you can probably use this on Windows, too. Both [Pandoc](http://pandoc.org/installing.html) and LaTeX can be installed on Windows (I recommend [MiKTeX](http://miktex.org/) for that) and you should be able to run makefiles on Windows through [Cygwin](https://www.cygwin.com/). If that's too much hassle, this command should do the trick in Powershell:
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pandoc details.yml -o output.pdf --template=template.tex --latex-engine=xelatex
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## Available settings
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- **`mainfont`**: Hoefler Text is the default, but every font installed on your system should work out of the box (thanks, XeTeX!)
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- **`fontsize`**: Possible values here are 10pt, 11pt and 12pt.
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- **`lang`**: Sets the main language through the `polyglossia` package. This is important for proper hyphenation, among other things.
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- **`geometry`**: A string that sets the margins through `geometry`. Read [this](https://www.sharelatex.com/learn/Page_size_and_margins) to learn how this package works.
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## Recommended readings
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- [Typesetting Automation](http://mrzool.cc/writing/typesetting-automation/), my article about this project with in-depth instructions and some suggestions for an ideal workflow.
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- [Why I do my résumé in LaTeX](http://www.toofishes.net/blog/why-i-do-my-resume-latex/) by Dan McGee
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- [What are the benefits of writing resumes in TeX/LaTeX?](http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/11955/what-are-the-benefits-of-writing-resumes-in-tex-latex) on TeX Stack Exchange
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- [Typesetting your academic CV in LaTeX](http://nitens.org/taraborelli/cvtex) by Dario Taraborelli
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- [Résumé advices](http://practicaltypography.com/resumes.html) from Butterick's Practical Typography
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- [Dimitrie Hoekstra](https://medium.com/@dimitrieh/a-curriculum-vitae-latex-typesetting-automation-adventure-with-gitlab-6ac233c0b66b#.v66feylcu) takes automation to the next level thanks to GitLab's continuous integration feats
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## Resources
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- Refer to [pandoc's documentation](http://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html#templates) to learn more about how templates work.
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- If you're not familiar with the YAML syntax, [here](http://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/yaml/)'s a good overview.
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- If you want to edit the template but LaTeX scares you, these [docs](https://www.sharelatex.com/learn/Main_Page) put together by ShareLaTeX cover most of the basics and are surprisingly kind to the beginner.
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- Odds are your question already has an answer on [TeX Stack Exchange](https://www.sharelatex.com/learn/Main_Page). Also, pretty friendly crowd in there.
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## See also
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- [invoice-boilerplate](https://github.com/mrzool/invoice-boilerplate) — Simple automated LaTeX invoicing system
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- [letter-boilerplate](https://github.com/mrzool/letter-boilerplate) — Typeset your important letters without leaving your text editor
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## License
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This repository contains a modified version of Dario Taraborelli's [cvtex](https://github.com/dartar/cvtex) template.
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License: [CC BY-SA 3.0](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
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