mjs-pnw / PDW_Markdown_Resume

Learn how to write your resume in Markdown and host it on GitHub. Create a clean, readable, editable resume that is easy to share with recruiters!

Professional DEVELOPment Week: Markdown Resume Tips & Tricks!

Learn how to write your resume in Markdown and host it on GitHub. Create a clean, readable, editable resume that is easy to share with recruiters!

Getting Started

• What is Markdown?
• How can I make my resume in Markdown?
• How can I host my resume (or more) on a GitHub site?

What is Markdown?

• Markdown is a language that you can use to format text on the web. It's more complicated than a plain .txt document, but less complicated than HTML.
• Markdown can be a great way to visualize some written word on the web. In Markdown you can make the text bold, italicized, both bold AND italicized, and much more! You can even use emojis 👽 👩‍🚀 🌍 🛰️
• In fact, this tutorial is written in Markdown! You can check out what Markdown looks like by going to edit the file (hint: click on the pencil icon up on the right!)
• Getting started with Markdown
  • GitHub has a basic guide to Markdown's syntax here.
  • A more in-depth guide to Markdown, covering topics both basic and extended can be found here.
  • We'll be using information from both these guides to help build our resume today.

How can I make my resume in Markdown?

• Things you will need:
  • A GitHub account
  • Information for your resume

Step 1: Making a place on GitHub for your resume

If you're new to GitHub, have no fear! In order to start the process for hosting your resume on here, you need to create a new repository. You can do that by clicking the new button up here at the top of the page, circled in red in the image below. You can also see a step-by-step guide here.

From here, you can name your repository. I recommend that you name it something straight to the point, like "resume" or "yourname_resume". That way, it's easier to remember what's in there. Also, make sure that the repository is set to Public, so that people can see it!

Create your repository and add a new file. This is where we will create the resume in Markdown.

Next, name the file "README.md". The "README" section sets up your repository so that it shows up automatically when people look at the repo here on GitHub. The ".md" section tells GitHub to make this a Markdown file.

Now you have a place to get started on the resume!

Step 2: Making the resume in Markdown

• There are a lot of great examples online of resume templates in markdown that you can use if you don't want to start from scratch.
  • This is a nice, easy to fill-in version
  • This example uses code blocks as a way to highlight projects
  • This example has a nice use of line breaks to separate sections
  • You can look for more templates online, or even look into the Markdown language and start from scratch! Using different text sizes, line breaks, and lists can make a great resume unique to your own style.

If you're using a template, paste the text in your README.md file and edit the information to match that on your own resume. Add and delete sections as necessary for your experience, skills, etc. (Hint: If you use the preview function up at the top of your file, you can see what it looks like in real-time!)

Here is an example of my resume using a template (You can check it out here)

How can I host my resume (or more) on a GitHub site?

If you want to go even further, you can host your resume as a website on GitHub. It's called GitHub Pages. With GitHub pages, you can also incorporate HTML and CSS elements. You can make your resume more complex, add things other than just your resume like a bio, blog posts, and more! The choices are yours.

Here are some examples of excellent personal websites hosted on GitHub pages:

• A list of open source projects happening on Twiter
• An easy demo site that shows you the basics of what you can do
• Elle Townsend's website
• Karl Broman's website

Here is GitHub's guide on getting started with your own GitHub page. I also used this tutorial as well when I created my own website.

A whole website seeming like too much right now?

A simpler idea is to modify your own GitHub profile to showcase you and your skills with a profile README. Just as the "README" section sets up a repository so that it shows up automatically when people look at it, this profile README shows up right on your GitHub's profile page. It's a great way to attract recruiters to your profile before they even see your code (you can even just add your resume to your profile if you want!). Here are some examples of cool profile READMEs if you need inspiration:

• Jason Lengstorf's profile
• Donavon West's profile
• Cyris' profile
• Nate Moore's profile
• Here's my own that I created after following the tutorial below!

Here is an awesome guide created by Monica Powell that can get you started on creating your own profile README!

What if I want to export my Markdown resume as a PDF?

Oftentimes job applications will ask you to upload a copy of your resume. But that's hard to do when your resume is only hosted online! Luckily, it's possible to export your Markdown resume as a PDF so the formatting stays consistent and any links stay intact.

Step 1: Download and install a Markdown editor

Creating a Markdown document is very simiilar to creating a standard text file. It's up to you to decide what your preferred editor is! Here are a couple commonly used options:

• RStudio
  • RStudio has a number of options for you to use to create your Markdown document. You can create a pure Markdown document, or you could create an R Markdown document that allows you to execute different chunks of code within your document.
• LaTeX
  • LaTeX is a document-setting program typically used for scientific or technical documents. It allows you to just type information into a document and it will format it nicely for you! You can create a LaTeX document and save it as a .md file to render into a PDF.

Once you install the editor of your choice, copy the raw Markdown text from the resume you created on GitHub and paste it into the editor. Save your document as resume.md or similar.

Step 2: Turn your .md file into a .pdf file

There are a different ways to convert a Markdown document to a PDF. You can read about those options here. Not all of those ways will preserve the look of what is called "GitHub-flavored Markdown" though, so we recommend using grip.

1. Open your Terminal (Mac) or Command Prompt (Windows). Use the cd command to navigate to the directory where your resume.md file is saved. (Your Desktop is usually the simplest choice.)
2. Run the following commands:

pip install grip
grip your_resume_file.md

3. Copy the http://localhost:NNNN/ URL that grip outputs and paste the address into Chrome. This is where grip is hosting your resume.
4. Go to File > Print... > Save as PDF and adjust the Paper Size setting (under "More Settings") so that your resume fits on a single page.
5. Name your file FirstNameLastName_Resume.pdf so that people will know it's yours!