cv-boilerplate/README.md
2015-11-04 13:02:21 +01:00

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# CV Boilerplate
> 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.
> &mdash;<cite>[zackelan](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10452606)<cite> on HN
A boilerplate to ease the pain of building and maintaining a CV or résumé using LaTeX.
## Intro
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:
```YAML
---
name: Friedrich Nietzsche
address:
- Humboldtstraße 36
- 99425 Weimar
- Prussia
email: friedrich@thevoid.de
# ...
experience:
- years: 1879--1889
employer: Freiberufler
job: Freier Philisoph
city: Sils-Maria
- years: 1869-1879
employer: Universität Basel
job: Professor für klassische Philologie
city: Basel
```
That makes super easy to update a CV while keeping a consistent structure.
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:
```latex
$for(experience)$
$experience.years$\\
\textsc{$experience.employer$}\\
\emph{$experience.job$}\\
$experience.city$\\[.2cm]
$endfor$
```
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.
![preview](preview.png)
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. Convenient, portable and time-proof.
## Dependencies
1. LaTeX with the following extra packages: `fontspec` `geometry` `multicol` `xunicode` `xltxtra` `marginnote` `sectsty` `ulem` `hyperref` `polyglossia`
2. Pandoc
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.
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).
## Getting started
1. Run this in your terminal to clone the repo, move into the right directory and delete all the git stuff:
git clone git@github.com:mrzool/cv-boilerplate.git && cd cv-boilerplate && rm -rf .git
2. Open `content.yml` with your text editor and fill it with your personal details, work experience, education, and desired settings.
3. Run `make` to compile the PDF.
4. Tweak on `template.tex` until you're satisfied with the result.
**Note**: this template needs to be compiled with XeTeX.
## Available settings
- **`mainfont`**: Hoefler Text is the default, but every font installed on your system should work out of the box (thanks, XeTeX!)
- **`fontsize`**: Possible values here are 10pt, 11pt and 12pt.
- **`lang`**: Sets the main language through the `polyglossia` package. This is important for proper hyphenation, among other things.
- **`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.
## Recommended readings
- [Why I do my résumé in LaTeX](http://www.toofishes.net/blog/why-i-do-my-resume-latex/) by Dan McGee
- [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
- [Typesetting your academic CV in LaTeX](http://nitens.org/taraborelli/cvtex) by Dario Taraborelli
- [Résumé advices](http://practicaltypography.com/resumes.html) from Butterick's Practical Typography
## Resources
- Refer to [pandoc's documentation](http://pandoc.org/demo/example9/templates.html) to learn more about how templates work.
- If you're not familiar with the YAML syntax, [here](http://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/yaml/)'s a good overview.
- If you want to edit the template but LaTeX scares you, this [docs](https://www.sharelatex.com/learn/Main_Page) put together by ShareLaTeX cover most of the basics and are surprisingly kind to the beginner.
- 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.
## See also
- [invoice-boilerplate](https://github.com/mrzool/invoice-boilerplate) — Simple automated LaTeX invoicing system
- [letter-boilerplate](https://github.com/mrzool/letter-boilerplate) — Typeset your important letters without leaving your text editor
## License
This repository contains a modified version of Dario Taraborelli's [cvtex](https://github.com/dartar/cvtex) template.
License: [CC BY-SA 3.0](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)