how to make a resume in latex

Creating a Curriculum Vitae with LaTeX

Last updated: March 18, 2024

1. Introduction

In the competitive job market landscape, a well-crafted curriculum vitae (CV) can make a remarkable difference in securing our dream career opportunity. The content and presentation of our CV play a vital role in grabbing the attention of potential employers and highlighting our skills and qualifications effectively.

While various tools are available for creating CVs, one approach that stands out for its professionalism and aesthetic appeal is using LaTeX . In this tutorial, we’ll study step-by-step how to create a CV with LaTeX using ModernCV – one of the most common and powerful package for creating CVs.

2. Install the ModernCV Package

Before installing ModernCV, let’s ensure we have LaTeX on our computer . If not, the following will show how to install MikTeX, the core of LaTeX.

If we’re using Windows, we can run the following commands in administrator mode to install the package MikTeX:

With Ubuntu and other Linux distros, the install process is less complicated. We can just copy and run these commands:

After the installation of MikTex, we can run the following command to install ModernCV:

3. Setting Up Our Document

First, we need to define the preamble of the LaTeX document. This starts with the declaration of the class moderncv . Then we can choose the theme for the CV, i.e., the style of the PDF result after compiling the LaTeX document.

The following describes the typical preamble for a LaTeX document using ModernCV:

4. Style Configuration

There are several options we can modify:

4.1. Page Size and Fonts

We can freely change the format (page size, text size, etc.) of the CV. For example, if we want to have a CV in the A4 paper size, default text size 10pt, support color printing, and that’s draft, we can define the documentclass as follows:

If we want a CV to be in letter paper size with a landscape look, default text of size 12pt, black-and-white printing, and the file is the final version, here is the config:

There are five available themes, as indicated in the above table: casual (default), classic , banking , oldstyle , and fancy . Here is what they look like after compiling:

Additionally, we have five available color options for themes (the color of titles and some bars and lines in the CV):

4.2. Margins

The margin of the CV can also be modified. The below table lists the optional parameters for margins:

For example, if we want a CV to have a scale of about 25% of free paper space, here is the command:

Or we can manually set each margin parameters ( top , bottom , left , right ) with this command:

4.3. Encoding

With this line, we can change the file’s encoding. We usually use the utf8 encoding:

4.4. Language

In this line, we can define the language of the CV. If our CV will be in English, here is the command:

4.5. Disable Page Numbering

For multi-page CVs, we can add this line to disable page numbering :

It is commonly recommended to summarize a CV in one page. A résumé, on the other hand, can have multiple pages.

5. Fill in Personal Information

Once all the configurations are done, we can start writing the content of our CV—our personal information. We can use the following lines to define them:

6. Customizing Sections

To open or close a section or subsection, we can use the following commands:

The command to open a new section is \section{<section_title>} . Every section can be divided into subsections with \subsection{<subsection_title>} . When needed, we can close the section with \closesection{} or create an empty section with \emptysection{} .

The following lines demonstrate the use of the above commands:

This results in the below figure:

6.1. Customizing Items

We can add items of many different types inside sections depending on our purpose.

To describe our education or job experiences, we can use the following command (note that the last three arguments are optional):

There is also a language section for any language certificate that we achieved:

The computer skill section contains some parameters as follows:

We can also add a skill entry with rating:

To insert a line with a hint on the left, we can use the following command:

To create a pair of two-item sections, we can use the command \cvdoubleitem . This command is often used to present information in two columns, such as a skill and its corresponding proficiency level, or a qualification and its date of completion:

For example, if we want to add a section for “Computer Skills” with multiple categories, we can write:

This will generate the following result:

To insert a list item inside a section, we need the following line:

We can also insert a section that list all of our publications . These data need to be stored in a BibTeX file ( *.bib ):

The name of the section title can be changed by the command \renewcommand{\refname}{<new_name>} .

6.2. Further Customizations:

We can modify the symbols used for personal data highlighting by redefining them as follows:

For command_name , the available options are: phonesymbol , emailsymbol , addresssymbol , mobilesymbol , faxsymbol . For new_symbol , we can use any possible symbol in LaTeX, such as \star or \rightarrow .

In addition, it is possible to change the symbol of the lists:

The following code sums up all of the above commands:

The result is shown in the below figure:

Many distances definitions are used by ModernCV, and all of them can be customized with the command:

The available options for the parameters length and new_value in the above command are:

• length : quotewidth , separatorcolumnwidth , maincolumnwidth , doubleitemcolumnwidth , listitemsymbolwidth , listdoublwitemmaincolumnwidth
• new_value : any distance value that LaTeX can understand

In particular, the first column can be set to any width in two ways:

To indicate the creation date of our CV, we can add the date that our CV was produced with the command \today .

To add some lines at the bottom of the CV, we can drop out the layout of ModernCV and push the line at the end.

7. Final Result

Once we’ve done all of these above steps. It’s time now to compile the LaTeX file and see the result PDFs:

8. Alternative Options to Create CVs in LaTeX

Besides ModernCV, there also exists other packages to create a CV/Resume in LaTeX, such as EuropassCV , Scott Clark CV , EuroCV , friggeri-cv , and so many others. It is worth noticing that some of them do have documentation and sample codes, and others don’t.

9. Conclusion

This article has provided a fast way to create a CV with LaTeX using the ModernCV package. Whether we are a seasoned LaTeX user or new to this remarkable typesetting system, this article will equip us with the knowledge and skills to create a standout CV that opens doors to exciting career prospects.

LaTeX-Tutorial.com

How to write a minimalistic cv in latex: step-by-step guide, learn how to write and customize a minimalistic curriculum vitae in latex. understand the logic behind every macro, and also how you can make modifications to customize it..

If your goal is not to become a TeXnician, but instead to have an easy way to write a CV in LaTeX, I am sure this tutorial will also be useful to you. You will find a fully working LaTeX template to write a CV and a detailed explanation that can serve as a reference when you want to change any aspect of the template. If you don’t care about the Technical details, you can jump straight to the last section , in which you will find a high-level and user-friendly use of the macros, to quickly produce a professional CV.

Without further introduction, let’s start writing our professional and minimalistic CV in LaTeX.

Required packages for typsetting a CV in LaTeX

1. document class.

As an optional argument, we will choose the font size of the document to be 12pt. Thus the first line of our document is:

2. Language and encoding

Next, we have to load the packages we will use. To begin with, let us load some basic packages:

3. Set the document font

In our example, the main font of the document is not LaTeX’s default font Computer Modern ; instead, we load the package:

which sets as default font the TeX Gyre Pagella.

4. Specify the CV margins

As you can see, the configuration command \geometry is very straightforward and lets us easily modify the size of the left, right, top, and bottom margins, setting them to the TeX dimension we want. Note that in our example we leave the default right and bottom margins, that’s why those lines are commented out (any margin that is not specified as the default length).

5. Remove headers, footers and page numbers

The page layout configuration is finished with the following command:

which empties the page from other elements like headers, footers, page numbers, margin notes, or anything like that.

6. Modify sections style to meet CV style

We change the font of the sectioning commands in the following ways:

• We make the font smaller: instead of using the \Large default font size it uses \large.
• We change the font family: instead of the font set for the entire document, for the sections we use the font \TeX Gyre Adventor, which can be loaded with the font code qag.
• Finally, we print a horizontal rule 5pt below the title, with a thickness of 1pt.

Once we have loaded the packages we will need, we have to define the macros used to write each of the entries in the document.

2. The macros

It is important to define macros for this purpose, instead of writing the text directly in the main document, for at least two reasons.

• First, the code becomes much shorter and cleaner, since we don’t have to specify the font size, type, etc. each time we want to write a new entry.
• Second, the code becomes much more reusable, because this way the user doesn’t need to understand what’s working behind, he can simply use the macros to write his CV without knowing any LaTeX at all.

Before writing our first macros, we need to define a new length, which will be used to align text on the same line (for example, in the entries for personal information, or to write the duration of each work entry):

1. Predefined lengths for space boxes

As you can see, we set this new length to be equal to the width of the box formed by 123456789. It is also convenient to define a macro to easily insert the same vertical separation between entries each time:

2. Name macro

Now it is time to write the macro that prints our name at the top of the CV:

This macro does the following:

• First, it sets the \Huge font size , so that our name outstands in the document.
• Next, it changes the font family. In this case, we chose the Helvetica font family, with font code phv .
• Following that it prints the name (which is passed as the first and unique argument to the macro) centered and using the boldface .
• After all of this, it ends the paragraph with \par and sets back the default size and font .

3. Slogan macro

A similar macro is used to define the motto, or slogan, of the candidate:

The only thing that changes with respect to the \name macro is that the font size is now \large, and the text is printed with a slanted font.

4. Personal details macro

Once we have the heading of our CV, we want to print the personal details of the candidate (contact information, address, and the like). Thus we define a macro to write each of these personal entries:

Let’s break down what this macro does since it is pretty different from the ones defined before:

• Before the contents of the macro, note that it will be passed to parameters: the first one will specify the name of the (personal information) entry, while the second will specify the contents of that entry. We separate these two so that we can give different format to each of them, and also set some separation.
• For this entries we set a specific indentation from the right margin. We first delete the default indentation with \noindent , then set our custom indentation with \hangindent , and finally indicate for how many lines we want this indentation with \hangafter (zero means that all the lines will have this same indentation).
• Now we create a paragraph mode box with \parbox of size \spacebox as was defined previously. Inside this box we want to have the entry name slanted.
• Finally, we print the entry contents using the default font and end the paragraph with \par .

If you get what this macro does, and understand what each command means, the remaining macros will be a piece of cake, since the structure is very similar.

5. Skills macro

To introduce skills and language levels we have the macros

As you can see, these are essentially the same as the \info macro , but let me make you aware of some differences.

• First the entry name space for the \verb|\skill| command is \verb|3\spacebox| instead of \verb|\spacebox|, since we want one of the skills to be “Programming languages” which doesn’t fit in a single line of width \verb|\spacebox|. I suggest you too adjust these lengths to fit the needs of your entries.
• What also changes is the font type of the entry names: for the skill it is smallcaps, and for the languages is boldface. These are, of course, arbitrary choices, and you can set them as you like the most.

6. Education macro

Finally let’s have a look at the two most complex macros, designed for education and work entries. First the macro for education entries is

This may seem a lot to get your head around to, but let me break it down for you into small steps:

• This macro has four arguments: the first specifies the name of the studies, the second the duration, the third the institution, and the fourth a more or less brief description.
• We write the name of the studies with no indentation in bold text.
• Then we use the \hfill command to write at the right the duration of the studies. This duration is written inside a \parbox of width 6em , is centered inside the paragraph box with \centering , and written in bold. Finally, the box is wrapped with a frame, using the \framebox command.
• Then we start a new paragraph with \par , and with no indentation we write the institution using italics. Again, we end the paragraph and start a new one.
• Finally, we leave 0.5em of vertical space, and with the same custom indentation as the one used for the personal, technical and language entries, we write in small text the description of the studies. Finally, we go back to the normal text size and end the paragraph.

7. Work macro

The work entry for our curriculum is essentially the same as the education entry:

But we wrote a separate macro in case you wanted to customize its appearance.

The main document

Now all of the hard work is done. It is time to see a small implementation of the previous macros, that is to say, a small example of how to use these macros, so that we can produce the example below.

Of course, every snippet that will appear in this section is no longer part of the preamble of our document; instead, it is all written inside the document environment .

First let’s write our name, motivation, and personal information:

• Note the need for the adequate vertical spacing each time: to get the motto closer to the name, we deleted 10pt of vertical space, which in our opinion made the title look better.
• We also added a \sepspace between the title and the personal info, and wrote the email with the typewriter font type, to make it look more professional.

Following this we have the work experience:

As you can see, between each entry we use a \sepspace . Similarly, we have the education section:

In this case, the education entries need no description. For this reason, we don’t use the \sepspace between entries, since they seem to look fine this way. However, this is just a matter of taste, so it is your final decision how it should look like.

And to finish the curriculum we have the sections with skills and languages:

In this tutorial we have seen a comprehensive explanation of the source code needed to compile the example of CV shown above.

• Along the way, we have explained several LaTeX commands to modify spacing , indenting , font size , font types , etc. that I hope will be useful to you in your LaTeX life beyond this project.
• We have seen some external packages, such as geometry or sectsty , used to customize the appearance of our document, that may also be useful in other kinds of documents.

Therefore I hope this tutorial has not only helped you typeset a professional CV, but that you have also gained some more insight into how LaTeX works with a practical example.

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Creating a Resume in LaTeX

December 1, 2018 - 3 minutes, if you’ve ever been frustrated by formatting or design issues in microsoft word/google docs, welcome to the beauty that is latex ..

I used LaTeX back in my college days for writing computer science papers, and after getting over the inital learning curve fell in love with it. Being able to programatically and logically lay out content just makes so much sense. But post-academia, I hadn’t found much use for LaTeX.

Over the years, my process for updating my resume had gotten annoying; I had to make sure I was on a device that had Microsoft Word installed, then do tedious work to make updates to my custom table layout, then upload the resume to my Google Drive so I could access it from any device. Google Docs was available cross-device, but even worse in terms of design.

So when I recently went to update my resume, I thought back to how much I used to love LaTeX and figured I’d give it a shot again, this time for my resume. Here’s how I did it.

Using LaTeX to Write Your Resume

The first step is to brush up on some of the basic concepts of LaTeX. If you’re new to it, I recommend checking out Overleaf’s Learn LaTeX in 30 Minutes guide. I’ll talk about Overleaf more in a minute, but I actually found them through their excellent LaTeX documentation, so this is a great resource to start with.

Next, you’ll probably want to find a resume template to build off of, rather than start from scratch. I just googled “latex resume” and found my starting template that way. You can also try out my template .

Once you have a .tex file, you’ll want to edit it with your own content and make design tweaks as you see fit. You can either: 1. install LaTeX on your machine, or 2. use an online service to edit/preview your changes.

• Depending on how you choose to install LaTeX (see the options here ), if you want to convert to PDF you will either need to do it via command line ( pdflatex yourresume.tex ) or use a built-in GUI. I chose not to go down this route, because I want the ability to edit and preview my resume on any device without needing LaTeX installed.
• My recommendation for an online service is the site I mentioned before, Overleaf. Overleaf is an online service that lets you write your LaTeX document with syntax checking and auto-compilation, and provides a preview of the generated PDF. It also has other fancy premium features like collaboration and syncing with Github, but the free version is sufficient for testing out resume changes. (Note: If you click the referral link above and sign up for Overleaf, you will help me unlock some premium features for my account. If you want to be stingy, you can also go straight to https://www.overleaf.com. )

Admire your shiny new resume!

If you run into any issues converting your resume to LaTeX, or have any general LaTeX questions, feel free to reach out to me over email or Twitter.

• Live preview: https://www.amyschlesener.com/docs/AmySchlesenerResume.pdf
• Repo including LaTeX source file: https://github.com/aschlesener/resume

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ATS friendly LaTeX resume template. Create a unique looking CV from scratch.

subidit/rover-resume

Folders and files.

Repository files navigation

This repository has several simple yet effective résumé template using basic LaTeX commands. The BASE ROVER template requires only about 10 lines of code to set up a clean and minimal résumé format. For your résumé, there's no need for any custom résumé class. These templates leverage the full power and flexibility of LaTeX, allowing you to customize every aspect without the constraints of predefined classes. All templates use article class and preinstalled fonts only.

These templates are designed with ATS (Applicant Tracking System) compatibility in mind, featuring single-column layouts that ensure your résumé is easily parsed. By using standard LaTeX commands, they maintain a clear and organized structure, making it simple for both ATS software and recruiters to quickly identify key details.

If you have any questions about using this template or formatting your résumé, feel free to post them in the Discussions section.

Screenshots

*Milky Rover Template is a recreation of Butterick’s practical typography résumé template.

• Single or Double lined title option.
• Multiple ways to format the Name & Contact info banner.
• ATS friendly.
• Works with pre-installed LaTeX fonts.
• Uses article class. No need to learn the working of any custom class.
• Uses typographic best practices.
• Your content looks clean and structured.

Quick start

Edit on Overleaf . Or just copy paste the code into your favorite LaTeX editor.

Getting Started

• Get the Repository : Fork or Download this repository to your local machine.
• Select a Template : Choose a template from the available options.
• Fill in Your Details : Personalize the template by filling in your information.

Tips for Using LaTeX Commands

• Sectioning : Use \section for major sections like Education, Experience, Certifications, Awards, Skills & Interests, etc.
• Subsectioning : Employ \subsection{} and \subsubsection for primary and secondary titles such as Institution Name, Position Title, Duration, etc.
• Bullet Points : Use itemize lists for creating bullet points.

For inquiries or assistance, visit the Discussions tab.

Feel free to contribute to the project or provide feedback by opening an issue or submitting a pull request.

Happy job hunting!

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Your resume is quite possibly the most important tool you will use to gain employment as a developer. Without an eye-catching resume , it can be hard to stand out from the rest of the programmers and software engineers applying for the same position you are. Fundamentally, your resume should consist of information about your qualifications and technical skills, as they relate to a developer job.

Read: Top Tech Companies Hiring Right Now.

A programmer’s resume has one simple goal: to land them an interview. For the purposes of this article, though, we will focus on the actual creation of the resume document, which is often overlooked. We will be using a document preparation technology called LaTeX .

LaTeX is typically used for high-quality typesetting. It can be used for a variety of different documents, from long scientific reports to the common resume. LaTeX is all about document design – it separates the design and the text that occupies the document. LaTeX is an extension of the TeX typesetting system, which is a programming language. Don’t worry, we’re not expecting you to know how to code in TeX – that’s what templates are for!

You can develop a document using LaTex through Overleaf , an online LaTeX editor that is free and easy to use right through your Internet browser. One of the most frustrating aspects of creating a resume is making sure the format and spacing are consistent and even. LaTex takes care of that for you, ensuring your document is uniform and visibly pleasing. You can select from hundreds of beautiful resume templates within Overleaf’s gallery . There are also numerous categories for document templates on Overleaf, including cover letters and thesis papers.

Overleaf LaTeX Editor Example

Once you have a resume template selected, click “ Open as template ”. If you have not already, you will need to create an account in order to save your work. When your template opens, you will notice that the interface is split in two – the source code on the left and the view of your document on the right.

Read: Top Java Job Interview Questions.

The text in the source code directly affects what appears on your document, so all of your editing will be done there. This makes it so you do not need to know how to code in order to create your document; you just need to know what to change and where it is located in the source code. Most templates even have notes laid out within the source code to help guide you.

That is all there is to it. Simply replace the information in the template’s source code with the information you want to include on your resume. The more you do this, the more you will get familiar with the code and learn how to manipulate it. You may also pick up a few tricks along the way, such as how to include hyperlinks or change the color of your text.

LaTeX Document Creation Tips

Here are a few tips to get you started using LaTeX for your document creation:

• If you change the source code and do not see the document view being changed, click “ recompile ” in the upper toolbar of the Document View . You can also click the arrow next to the recompile button to do this automatically.
• To include an “ & ” symbol in your resume, you will need to put a forward slash (/) in front of it (this may or may not work depending on what packages are installed in the template).
• Do not be afraid to copy and paste sections of the document that you want to duplicate; just be sure to notice where the section begins and ends when selecting which text to copy.
• If you make a mistake, don’t worry – you can Undo with CTRL+Z on Windows ( Command+Z on Mac).

When you are comfortable with the look of your resume, click “ Save as PDF ” in the upper toolbar of the Document View . Now you have a resume that is beautiful, consistent, and pleasing to read!

Looking for a developer or programmer job? Check out Technology Advice’s Hiring page to see open jobs in the technology field. Be sure to tell them Developer.com sent you!

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:necktie: A collection of simple and easy to use, yet powerful LaTeX templates for CVs and resumes. All of them are self designed and self implemented and not copied from template collections.

Now with support for Chinese, Japanese and Korean character encoding. Setup is only two lines of code! Read more here .

Great first impression

Point out with a progressive layout. Give decision makers and HR only the most important information about you on one single page.

Beginner friendly

Pick a template, replace the content, compile, done. If that’s not enough you can easily customize colors, fonts and layout. The templates are documented directly in the code.

Minimal environment

You need a minimal tex-live distribution to compile the templates. No XeTeX or LuaTeX required. No other SDKs or environments required.

How to build?

Using docker.

We now have a Dockerfile you can use to build your latex environment. For this you need to have Docker installed on your system.

Get Docker: https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/

We provide scripts for building the image and running the containers, so you should fine by simply running the build.sh script:

You should now be able to build CVs simply by providing the folder name:

Constraints: You need to be in the top-level folder of this project and the image has been created (see prior step).

You can also run a daemon and pass through build commands, suitable if you build many times in sequence:

This has originally been implemented by https://github.com/blang/latex-docker/tree/master

Manual build

The following guide just briefly describes the requirements and build procedure as there are many ways to install a LaTeX distribution on various OS. Please create an issue, if this part is not helpful.

Build Requirements

You will need some minimal Texlive distrubution (The full texlive distribution is nearly 2GB large but you will need only a part of it). A good starting point is here: https://www.latex-project.org/get/#tex-distributions

If you want to install texlive from tug.org instead, you can use this guide: https://tug.org/texlive/

Users of various Linux distrubutions can also install texlive from their repositories.

This repo also contains a texlive.profile file in the project root, that can be used to install the minimum required texlive packages when manually installing texlive.

Build Procedure

• Clone or download this project.
• Change to a template folder, which contains a main.tex file do
• Edit the main.tex according to your CV credentials, optionally change settings and colors etc.
• Run pdflatex (build/compile)
• The main.pdf should show the output.

Contribution

Contributors are very welcome . You want to contribute? Awesome! Please check the contribution guidelines first to make it a success.

:heart: Thanks a lot to all sponsors of this project, your contribution will help to keep this project going:

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2014-2021 Jan Küster

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

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What are the benefits of writing resumes in TeX/LaTeX?

Today, I've written my resume in LaTeX and it looks great and all

It took me about 2 hours to get everything right

But I've been thinking, what benefits do I get from writing it in LaTeX rather than in a word processor like MS Word or OOo Writer?

I'm not comparing TeX/LaTeX to those programs, but I just want to know if TeX is the right choice for resumes.

• 4 Just my two cents: TeX helps you focus on the content of your resume, not why Microsoft Word isn't letting you align two things properly. –  Robert Soupe Commented Sep 5, 2018 at 15:19

14 Answers 14

I think a resume is more typesetting than word processing, so I would not use MS Word or OOo Writer. One could use Indesign or a free layout program.

Often resumes contain text in columns. Text in narrow columns is hard to wrap--TeX does a good job here. For even better justification use microtype with pdfLaTeX. I think with microtype the chance to avoid big gaps or lots of hyphenation is better than with word processors.

It's good if the resume matches the covering letter. Since LaTeX is great for letters, for example with the scrlttr2 class, it would naturally be a good choice for the resume.

There are specialized LaTeX classes. Though I prefer a class matching the class for the covering letter, such as scrartcl together with scrlttr2. tabularx does already good work then.

A resume can be used for many years in your working life, it will grow with the time. LaTeX is stable and remains mostly compatible, so you can reuse your resume when you apply for the next job in 10 years. Imagine, you would have used Works or Starwriter many years ago... you would require old software and an old operating system to reuse an old word processing document. With LaTeX it would be much easier.

ConTeXt , which is based on TeX, gives you even more control over typesetting.

On TeX tips , written by John D. Cook, I found a link where Dan McGee shares his experiences:

Why I do my résumé in LaTeX

LaTeX résumé Follow-up including a template and an example pdf

While looking what others say to this question, I found Matthew M. Boedicker's Tips together with links to resume templates and examples on

• LaTeX Resume Examples by Derek Hildreth.

• Your answer is the most informative so far, and the "Why I do my resume in LaTeX" link is just what I was looking for, thank you. –  Mahmoud Hossam Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 19:12
• These are good answers, I would add one more: LaTex is version control friendly. You can store all your changes in, for example, git and track exactly what changed when, branch between versions and so on. You can't do that with complex binary files. –  Jack Aidley Commented Jan 31, 2013 at 13:36
• 1 What about modern word templates? Like google docs has some pretty nice templates. –  Souradeep Nanda Commented Jul 4, 2017 at 15:27

If you are a scientist, you will probably need to add a list of publications, conference talks, and similar things to your cv. This is very nicely, and easily handled in LaTeX. With MSWord or OOWriter it gets really messy, expecilay if you have to keep updated your cv in different languages.

LaTeX is also a nice format to store in a revision control system to track different revision of the cv you hand out to different people in different contexts, and its evolution in time.

Have a look at this nice article http://robjhyndman.com/researchtips/cv/ .

Besides all the answers here, I have recently modularized my resume with TeX. With this I can quickly build my resume for a variety of different jobs. The basic idea is:

So I can just uncomment the appropriate sections, and build a completely different resume. My sections are more defined than this, but I've found it to be a major plus when applying for many jobs.

• 3 I tend to do this the other way around, importing a file that specifies common text (usually using Context's \startbuffer...\stopbuffer ) into separate master documents. I generally want to handle formatting and job-specific information together. –  Charles Stewart Commented Feb 28, 2011 at 14:37

One intangible benefit: you are signalling to an employer that you have taste, a certain degree of intellect, and a bit of non-crowd-following behavior. When resumes come across my desk, I give a mental +1 to TeX-formatted resumes. The only resumes that get a higher bump are plain ascii ones.

It also draws attention from potential employers who appreciate TeX.

• 3 Yeah, but then there was the time when I was applying to a large corporation for a LaTeX-typesetting position, submitted my résumé as a .tex file, and was told they couldn't open it and needed a copy done as a Word .doc. –  WillAdams Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 17:06
• 9 @WillAdams, that's your clue to skip over that employer. :) –  Mark Harrison Commented Sep 11, 2014 at 21:30
• 5 @WillAdams Why did they want the source file? Wasn't the pdf file enough? –  xuhdev Commented Feb 10, 2016 at 8:06
• 1 I sent a typeset .pdf --- one done using (Plain) TeX), and included the .tex source --- they wouldn't accept it, wanted a Word .doc. –  WillAdams Commented Feb 10, 2016 at 15:08
• 6 How do you differentiate the TeX CV and Word CV? If I can layout the same –  Chao Commented Jul 21, 2017 at 8:30

Everyone seems to be focused on looks and I see many multipage layouts for CVs in the links, but the content is often the most important, and unless you do think in pink and black with a comics font, the look is quite secondary. The content and conciseness are the things that will make a difference.

Here is what a friend from Microsoft says:

No one commented about the people who are actually going to read the resume. :) When I go through resumes for phone screening or interviews. I don't care how nice or well presented a resume is. As long as it's short and well summarized. In addition, having a solid resume with recommendations on LinkedIn seems to be getting more important efficient these days...

It seems to me that serious candidates will do nice resume, wether it is with LaTex or something else, thus the focus should really be on the content. In that, the fact that latex will allow you to focus on that might be good, but if you spend more time hacking a style for your resume, you are not augmenting your skills on the content ;)

• 4 I absolutely agree that the content is first and foremost -- unfortunately, that's not how most HR departments/managers around the world think. Non-technical decision-makers use the only metric they can -- does your resume look good or not. This is the very first step that is taken to weed out the few promising candidates among everybody who has applied for the job, and ask them for an interview. After that, it's only your skills and knowledge that matter. But getting to that phase is going to be difficult with just a 'meh' resume. –  Martin Tapankov Commented Feb 25, 2011 at 8:28
• 8 No one commented about the content because it is not the point being discussed, the question is not "how to write a resume" or "what is a good resume" but whether latex would add a value to a resume or not, after all this is a question about tex site not about resume writing. –  خالد حسني Commented Feb 28, 2011 at 16:05

You get more proficient with LaTeX. :)

Seriously: the code is plain text, so you will be able to re open the document in 10, 20 years and extract at least some information from it. And for my documents I don't know if this is necessary or not, but I like it when I know that this is possible.

I believe it is independent of the actual type of the document you are writing. For many years I had been using MS Word, later OO Writer, but when I saw the quality LaTeX could provide I didn't hesitate for a second to throw out everything and start all over with LaTeX.

You write your resumé in LaTeX because it gives you fine control and superior quality, both of which are of utmost importance with this type of document. The very purpose of the resumé is to impress the reader with both looks and content. You have to provide the content, and LaTeX, with your help, can provide the looks.

And more generally, almost anything you typeset in LaTeX even with no or very limited customization will look much better than anything you write using Word or Writer.

• But both writer and Word as easier to use, since they're GUIs after all, and they have WYSIWYG, something I don't think is present in any TeX editor till now –  Mahmoud Hossam Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 19:08
• @Phobia: I don't see why would any editor/wordprocessor or any program in general be superior just because it has a GUI interface. But if that is what you are after, try Gummi . –  Heisenb0rg Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 20:53
• where exactly have I said they were superior, I said they were easier to use, this doesn't necessarily mean they're superior in any way –  Mahmoud Hossam Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 21:00
• 1 See also: LyX . –  nmichaels Commented Feb 25, 2011 at 16:49
• 1 @Phobia: I was under the impression GUI meaning ease of use also meant superiority. Sorry if I misunderstood you. WYSIWYG is "what you see is what you get", but I so rarely saw what I really wanted. In other words, in, say, Word it is easy to get something done but close to impossible to get it done right. So I don't see the GUI as something that really equals ease. –  Heisenb0rg Commented Feb 25, 2011 at 19:06

You use the tool you are more accustomed too e.g. if I'm to write a resume then ConTeXt is my natural choice unless it need to supplied in some weird format (.doc or something). Fighting an office suit to just write a few pages document would be a crazy choice of me.

• there are tools that convert from TeX to doc :) –  Mahmoud Hossam Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 19:11
• I completely agree. I am not going to start learning how to use Word of Open Office just to get my resume done. I already know TeX, it does the job very well, why use something else? In fact, I would have to first install Open Office, or even a completely new operating system in order to use Word, on my computer. –  Jan Hlavacek Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 19:47

I like moderncv LaTeX class, it just fit my needs, and the output is really clean.

See : https://www.ctan.org/pkg/moderncv/

Mostly, the benefits you get are the same ones you would get from doing any document in LaTeX instead of a word processor.

Basically with LaTeX you can focus on the content rather than the formatting. The document is plain text and therefore shareable, compressible, source-controllable, and future-proof but easily compileable to PDF at any time.

In the particular case of a resumé, you'll find that converting from one style to another is often a question of modifying a command in the header. Also most resumé packages deal gracefully with multi-language needs.

A few points, I hope that they illustrate what you're getting. LaTeX is simply the best format for writing documents.

(as an aside, LaTeX can not only replace Writer et al, but also Impress quite easily - see the beamer package)

• 4 In many cases I focussed much more on formatting then on the actual contents. Placing objects on a page can be a daunting job in LaTeX. –  topskip Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 16:48
• Patrick here has a point, It took me a while to get used to the many options of LaTeX, and how they should be used, instead of focusing on the content as you said. –  Mahmoud Hossam Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 17:05
• 2 LaTeX certainly has a steep learning curve. But once you know what you are doing, it's totally worth it. I wrote a thirty page thesis in a night in LaTeX, complete with a table of contents, graphs, and bibliography. I don't think I could have done that in Word. (To be fair, during the work for the thesis, I kept my bib file up to date.) –  Tom Macdonald Commented Feb 28, 2011 at 23:06

I write my CVs in MS-word and used to send employment agencies a PDF copy. On several occasions, I have been requested the original MS-Word version. On one occasion, I got to see just what the agency had sent the prospective employer - they had edited my resume, added their own banner and removed direct contact information.

You may find using anything other than MS-Word may cause problems if your employment agency wishes to apply edits before passing it on.

• 1 Exporting from Latex to RTF may be useful if you have to deal with such agencies. –  Charles Stewart Commented Feb 28, 2011 at 14:41
• 1 Yes, this is definitely a problem with trying to be clever and creating a CV in LaTeX. Sure, it's beautiful, but agencies won't accept it. Unfortunately Latex2Rtf doesn't work reliably for me, and after a day of searching I've still not found a good solution. –  CJBrew Commented Oct 31, 2011 at 15:42
• 5 you could ask the agency for their logo and details, show them how a REAL document gets formatted, they may offer you a consulting gig to fix up the resumes for all their other clients.... –  Nicholas Hamilton Commented Dec 21, 2012 at 17:08

Well I did my resume in Latex and switched back to OpenOffice. I'm not a LaTeX/TeX junkie though I use it a lot.

LaTeX is nice for long pieces of text, like thesis, article, presentation, when you either are eager to spend much time making it look great (I find customizing looks of papers cumbersome in TeX) or don't care about looks (then stick to defaults --- and then it will look ok). You cant stick to defaults in your CV, and I was never willing to spend couple of hours on just formatting my CV.

Also LaTeX is most effective when writing long pieces of text --- you format it once and it will look great (formatting long piecies of text --- like thesis --- in OO or MSOffice is a pain). CVs are short, so there is little benefit.

It's much easier to do layout of graphical elements in WYSWIG editor. Write -> Compile -> see .pdf cycle is cumbersome.

It's easier to give your CV for review to someone who does not use TeX (well most people who'd I give my resume for review are).

Having said all this: it's possible that I will in future switch back to writing CV in LaTeX (or most probably LyX with custom TeX code).

• 1 I agree. It is easier to make your CV look distinctive in WYSWIG editor than in TeX. Using the default settings for a TeX document makes your resume look the same as everyone elses (eg, same font, same layout, same margins). It becomes pointless to do it this way because there was no creative or technical input at all. –  Apprentice Queue Commented Jan 6, 2012 at 23:30

I have a beautiful cv written with XeTeX using the suggestions/template I found at http://nitens.org/taraborelli/cvtex

##Moderncv with banking style worked for me

I started with a word resume, found it too challenging to bring uniformity in it and switched to latex. However, it is difficult for some time to get used to the template. Eventually, when I compare the resume I prepared in Word and LaTeX, LaTex wins. I think LaTex is specifically helpful when you want to make changes affecting the whole file rapidly.

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ATS Resume Templates

Download an ATS-friendly resume template for free. These templates can be edited in Microsoft Word and can be accurately scanned by an applicant tracking system.

If you’ve made it to this page, then you probably already know more about applicant tracking systems (ATS) than the average job seeker. That gives you an advantage! Why?

Many companies use ATS to manage resumes and applications. In fact, Jobscan research shows that over 97% of Fortune 500 companies use an ATS.

If an ATS can’t read or understand the information on your resume, then your application might not be seen when a recruiter searches for candidates with specific skills or experience – even if you have those skills or the experience!

Your resume needs to be ATS-friendly in order to give you the best chance of getting a job interview. That means that you need an ATS resume template.

We’ve designed 15 ATS resume templates that can be downloaded as Microsoft Word files and easily edited. Download one for free or use our free resume builder to get a customized ATS-friendly resume in minutes.

Free ATS Resume Templates

Executive and Management ATS-Friendly Resume Templates

As a leader, you want your experience and accomplishments to shine. These resume templates give you opportunities to show the measurable results you’ve achieved, as well as your hard and soft skills .

Using correct formatting is critical here. The ATS needs to be able to parse all of that vital information and categorize it correctly. You also need your resume to be searchable by an ATS so that when a recruiter filters candidates by skills, your application stays on the list.

Entry-Level ATS-Friendly Resume Templates

You might not think you have a lot to show on your resume, but you do! These templates provide sections where you can highlight your education, internships, volunteer experience , personal accomplishments, and more.

An ATS-friendly resume will help you get found by recruiters and hiring managers. This is important because an entry-level position could have hundreds of applicants! Use these templates to make sure the ATS picks up your skills and experience.

Make your resume faster with our free resume builder

Write your resume the free and easy way with the only resume builder designed specifically with ATS-compliant resume templates.

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ATS Resume Templates - What You Need to Know

How to make the perfect ats resume.

Remember, an ATS is just a computer filing system. It needs to be able to scan and understand the text on your resume in order to correctly parse the information and sort it properly.

An ATS will never auto-reject a resume, but an ATS optimized resume does make it easier for a recruiter to find you among the sea of applicants.

Even more importantly, an ATS-friendly resume naturally follows expert-recommended resume writing standards as well. That means that when the recruiter personally views your resume, it will include the relevant information they’re looking for and will be formatted in a way that makes it easier to read

Follow these tips for making the perfect ATS resume :

1. Tailor your resume to the job you are applying for

Focus on quality over quantity. Each job you apply for is unique, even if they all have the same title. Every company has different needs for that role. The job description will make it clear which hard skills, soft skills, experience, and education the company is looking for. So tailor your resume to show them that you are the perfect candidate.

Tailoring each and every resume can be time consuming, but it’s worth the effort!

You can speed up this process by using a tool like Jobscan’s resume scanner . Powered by AI-technology , this tool analyzes your resume against the job description and provides you with a resume score that tells you how closely your resume matches the job description. It also tells you exactly what you need to do to increase your score.

2. Match your resume keywords to skills found in the job description

Recruiters might use an ATS’ search function to find applicants with specific skills. How do you know what skills they will search for? By examining the job listing. Use a resume scanner to automatically pick out the hard and soft skills the recruiter might search for, and then include those on your resume.

Even if the recruiter doesn’t search applications for those skills, they’ll definitely be looking for mentions of them on each resume they review.

3. Use long-form and acronym versions of keywords

Some ATS will only return resumes with the exact keywords the recruiters would search for. For example, if you included “Search Engine Optimization” in your resume but the recruiter searched for “SEO,” your profile may not appear in the results. Try to include both the acronym and the unabbreviated form of the term.

Use a tool like Jobscan’s resume fixer to make sure your resume doesn’t contain mistakes that will eliminate you from consideration.

4. Use Chronological or Hybrid resume format to write your resume .

Recruiters do not like the functional resume format . Unless you’re making a career change, a functional resume is going to work against you. (And even then, we recommend you steer clear of the format for a career change resume .)

The best format for the ATS is traditional reverse chronological. You can also use chronological and hybrid resume formats as these are familiar to most recruiters.

5. Use an easy-to-read, traditional font

For readability, use a traditional serif or sans serif font. Untraditional or “fancy” fonts can cause parsing errors, which means the full text of your resume won’t be searchable.

6. Use standard resume section headings

Section headers like “Where I’ve Been” in place of “Work Experience” will confuse applicant tracking systems, causing them to organize information incorrectly.

7. Save your file as a .docx if possible

A docx file is most compatible with ATS.

What is the best resume format for ATS?

There are three standard resume formats to choose from in your job search. They shape your first impression and determine the way recruiters and hiring managers view your fit as an applicant.

Your resume formatting can also determine how well your resume is parsed within an applicant tracking system (ATS) and how likely you are to be noticed as a result.

Regardless of the format you use, the most important thing is to use standard section headings like Experience, Skills, and Education. That will make it easier for the ATS to categorize the text.

How to tailor your ATS-friendly resume to a job

Tailoring your resume proves to recruiters that you’re an experienced professional. Most importantly, it shows them that you’re the perfect fit for this role.

Follow these three steps for tailoring your resume to a job description:

1. Examine the specific job description of the position

Go line by line through the job description and ask yourself these questions:

• “Does my resume experience section clearly state that I can do what’s required of this role?”
• “Am I using the same language found in the job description or job posting?”

You might find several different or missing skills and keywords in your generic resume.

2. Match skills and keywords from the job description

Mirroring the language, keywords, and buzzwords found within the job description is the easiest way to demonstrate you’re a better match than the competition.

The best way to show you’re the best fit for the position is to take words from the job posting and strategically put them in your job descriptions and other resume sections. A resume scanner will automatically pull out these keywords in seconds and speed up this process.

3. Write your job title clearly

Recruiters might search for people who have done the job they’re hiring, so list your job titles clearly and match the titles to the one in the job posting when possible. If you haven’t held the job before, list it under your name at the top or as part of your summary section.

What is Applicant Tracking Software (ATS)?

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is software used to assist with human resources, recruitment, and hiring. While each system offers a different package of features, applicant tracking systems are primarily used to help hiring companies organize and navigate large numbers of applicants.

For example, an ATS stores job candidate information like resumes, cover letters, references, and other recruitment and hiring data that HR teams can easily access and organize. It will also track job candidates and their application status throughout the hiring pipeline.

Ultimately, an ATS automates time-consuming administrative tasks such as manually screening applicants, reading resumes, scheduling interviews, and sending notifications and emails to job candidates and employees.

Can you add graphics to your resume?

When it comes to creating an ATS-friendly resume , the rule is: The simpler, the better. ATS are improving at scanning different formatting features, but not all of them are good at this.

Adding graphics and images could cause ATS parsing errors , which means the text on your resume won’t be fully searchable or accurately categorized by an ATS. We recommend that job seekers err on the side of caution. Avoid graphics, images, and photos.

Are Google Docs or Microsoft resume templates ATS-friendly?

They can be. We talked about some formatting features to avoid on your resume – fancy graphics and non-traditional fonts. Those features can trip up an ATS, even if they’re on a Word document or Google Docs file.

However, as long as you follow the guidelines on this page, or use one of these ATS resume templates, you’ll be fine.

How to get your cover letter past the ATS?

To increase your cover letter’s chances of passing an ATS, focus on using a clean format without complex formatting, incorporate relevant keywords and phrases from the job description, and ensure that your content is easy for the ATS to parse.

Consider using a tool like Jobscan’s cover letter generator to help you create an ATS-friendly cover letter. If you already have a cover letter, run it through our cover letter checker tool to get personalized feedback on how to improve your cover letter and make it more compelling to employers.

More Resume Resources

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Professional Resume Templates

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