I have wasted more time than I'd like to admit looking for a resume builder. All of the "free" ones I've found end up putting some type of watermark on it (and only disclose this after you've spent an hour building your new fancy resume in an attempt to sunk-cost fallacy you into paying $30). Well, I finally found a free and open source resume builder: Reactive Resume
Back in the golden years that were the early 2000's, everyone would just use a Word template to build a simple but functional resume. It was a bit cumbersome when you had to add a new "experience" entry (and then reduce the font of the whole document so that it would fit nicely on one page), but it was reliable and straightforward.
The Era of Fancy Resumes
At some point, however, these new and fancy resumes started showing up. The ones with a sidebar that lists their programming languages, and fancy coloring and margins and headers, and even the occasional headshot (??). It was like someone printed out a little website onto a piece of paper.
Naturally, I was impressed and decided I needed one. So I started Googling around and found a plethora of "Resume Builder" websites. And what a fun experience it was! Until I got to the end and money was demanded to download it. Or worse, they put a watermark on the bottom of it...
I get it, I get it, nothing in this world is free. So I figured I'd just stick to Word documents instead, and try my best to do something similarly fancy, despite Word being very finnicky.
Reactive Resume
Then, not too long ago, I decided to check again to see if I could find anything truly free. And to my surprise, I managed to find a platform that was free and sleek: Reactive Resume. And not just that, it's open source!
It's got a really nice interface, is easy to use, and you can create an account to save any number of resumes. On top of that, you can export your resume as a JSON to backup to your own devices, which you can use to import back into Reactive Resume later.
Sure, it doesn't have a huge amount of templates to choose from. But the ones that it does have are really nice and they're extremely customizable.
Anyway, I just wanted to post this in case anyone is still using a docx resume. And give a shoutout to Amruth Pillai for building this :)
Top comments (33)
Look, how many people are bookmarking the post but not liking it. Be a little grateful guys!
jsonresume.org/ is pretty good also...
Wow, I was wondering where all the sudden traffic and GitHub stars were coming from. This is so unexpected :)
Thank you so much for everyone using Reactive Resume. As mentioned on the site, it's a passion project of mine that is self-funded (and through some donations from kind users). It will remain free for as long as time or money runs out, and the idea is just that no one should be paywalled into getting their next job.
If you are coming from JSON Resume or LinkedIn, I have implemented some naive ways to import data from these sources as well to create a new resume.
I do understand that content is key and most folks do prefer LaTeX or other formats. And sure, there is a place for that too. But there can be a place for those who are just out of school, and just need a way to stand out of the crowd. An always-online, updated and "flashy" resume just might be one way of doing that (speaking from personal experience).
Thank you so much @cppshane for the amazing post about it. I'm glad you found it at a time of need.
Happy New Year!
Heh yeah I didn't expect it to blow up like this, I guess my pain resonates with people 😅
Either way, awesome platform!
You are a legend man!
Been following you for many years across a few platforms. Love how you express and create new things
Much love!
I use Latex templates in Overleaf to build my resumes.
But with the advent of ATS, these fancy resumes are decreasing its importance.
Are these fancy resumes ATS friendly??
You can make it fancy and ATS friendly
overleaf.com/gallery/tagged/cv
An interesting article, @cppshane and of course a shout out to @amruthpillai for this builder. This library is also showcased on Open Weaver's kandi platform.
I think it's not necessarily about recognition. I see Likes and Good Comments on an article as the primary way an author can understand that people appreciate their work. This encourages them to post more beneficial articles for the community. And writing technical article is not an easy task. It takes hours of reading docs, writing and editing.
Thank you for your perspective. I understand where you're coming from, and it's true that receiving positive feedback can be very encouraging for authors. However, I don't think that recognition and appreciation are necessarily the same thing. Recognition can come in many forms, such as through likes and good comments, but it can also come through other means, such as through citation of an article in other work, or through the impact that an article has on its readers.
Furthermore, while it's true that writing a technical article can be a challenging task, I don't think that this should be the primary motivation for doing so. I believe that the primary motivation for writing an article should be to share knowledge and insights with others, and to contribute to the community in a meaningful way. If we only write articles for the sake of receiving recognition or appreciation, we may lose sight of the bigger picture and the true purpose of writing.
That being said, it's always nice to receive positive feedback and recognition for our work, and I think it's important to find a balance between seeking recognition and staying true to our motivations for writing.
Exactly! I believe, we're on the same page. I should have been more clear in my comments. I never meant that we write articles only for the sake of recognition/appreciation, rather it's for the benefit of the community. I was just trying say that providing positive feedback is highly encouraging for an author and we really appreciate it. The only reason I wrote the first comment is because, I saw 22~25 bookmarks and only 8~9 likes. If you think that an article is important enough to be bookmarked then why not also click the like button? Furthermore, likes also helps a post to get more views.
Great pick!! @cppshane. Shout out to @amruthpillai :)
Woah thanks for sharing.
thanks for this, i can't express how much i hate spending time building a resume only for the site to request for payment at the end
"Free Resume Builder!"
"Oh you want to download it too? That'll be $100"
Solid, powerful tool. And love that it's FOSS!
great contribution
helpful, will definitely share
Thanks for sharing!
It's very helpful for me.
Here is a good one for LaTeX resumes if anyone is using them.
resumake.io
Really nice tool! I just tested it and I think it's got a lot of potential! With more templates and better layout options for the different sections (currently 1-4 columns) it will be a killer!