CV Writing in LaTeX

Against my prior better judgement, I’ve re-written my CV in LATEX. I thought I’d share some tips relating to how I made mine.

Use of Space

Time and space are at a premium in a CV, so it all needs to fit on one page. LATEX is (in)famous for its large, pretty headings and margins. To solve these, I have a few suggestions:

Use a bullet-separated list instead of a title:

Aidan Hall • My Address • Phone Number
Website • user.name@email.com • GitHub

Formatting Packages

Use geometry, enumitem and titlesec to make your margins, lists and headings (respectively) more compact:

\usepackage[top=2cm, margin=2cm, bottom=0.5cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\setlist{itemsep=2pt}
\usepackage[explicit]{titlesec}
% (merely) large, outdented, unnumbered section titles
\titleformat{\section}{\large\bf}{}{0.0em}{#1}
\titlespacing{\section}{-2em}{*1}{*1}

Sans-Serif Font

Great if you want to avoid scaring people.

\renewcommand{\familydefault}{\sfdefault}

Use Description Lists

By default, these lists will format a label for each list entry in bold, while keeping it on the same line. This is easier to use than something like a table, and keeps the content on the same line as the label, making it more compact than sub(sub(sub))sections.

Hyperlinks

Instead of this:

I did a thing (link).

Write this:

I did a thing.

The latter retains the link, without wasting the time of an employer who may not read it.

To get embedded PDF links in LATEX, use hyperref:

\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}

Commands and Conditionals

These are what make LATEX (debatably) worth using for a 1-page document. These let you cut down on repetitive typing (if you remember to make them pre-emptively, anyway), and separate content from form, ensuring that said form is standardised, and easily modifiable.

I have two that I am using in my current CV:

Occupations

For work experiences, time in education and other such things (in description lists), I wanted a way to show what I had done, where, and when:

\newcommand{\occupation}[3]{\item[{#1}] at \emph{#2} (#3)}
% ...
\occupation{English Literature}{University of Who Cares}{2077--2077}

English Literature at University of Who Cares (2077-2077).

Private and Public Versions

I want to publish my CV on my website, but am nervous about it containing quite personal information like where I went to school, and my home address, so I wanted to produce two versions: one with said information, and one without.

LATEX supports counters, so I can define one called public, which is 1 if the document should be fit for public display. I can then use a conditional statement to determine which content to show.

\newcommand{\privpub}[2]{\ifnum\value{public}=0{#1}\else{#2}\fi}
% ...
\newcounter{public}
\setcounter{public}{1}
% ...
\privpub{69696 969696}{Phone Number}

Now, simply by changing the value of public, I can generate two different versions of the document, rather than needing to manually maintain two copies.