Ask HN: How do you store and maintain your CV/resume?

1 point·ChikkaChiChi··2 comments

Have you found a good way to store and maintain your professional experience? Do you keep your data and view separate? Structure or unstructured data format? Have you found a "good" standard format that works for you? Any other tips you can share with HNers?

View on HN

I keep my resume in an OpenOffice OTP file and also maintain a LinkedIn profile. When I am ready to look for a new position, I'll update the resume using information from LinkedIn since it keeps track of things like duration and employer information pretty easily. From there, as I look for jobs, I'll customize the resume based on the new employer and what they are looking for, export in a format that they can read (usually PDF, especially if they don't specify anything), submit it, and move onto the next job listing

This page is the first time I'm hearing of JSONResume. Honestly, it sounds excessive and only useful for applicant tracking systems (which can be useful if you're in an industry that's ATS-heavy, which mine is not)

I started the process of looking for a standard that would hopefully work better with the countless automated tracking systems (ATS) you're asked to work with as an applicant. Turns out there really isn't one and most advice is "standard formatting in a Word document."

The fact that there isn't really any sort of decent open standard is shocking to me. Almost every single person entering adulthood will have professional experience they need to track.

I think I've settled on storing and updating the data in YAML, then building tools to produce JSON in the JSONResume format, HTML in Schema.org, and XML. At least this way it'll be easy to update, and it's the least burdensome path if I have to convert it to another standard later.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com