I Built a CV Builder from Scratch — Here's What I Learned

A few months ago, I started building ResumeOrbitz — an ATS-friendly CV builder with grammar checking, cover letter generation, and resume tailoring.

Not because the world needed another resume tool. But because I wanted to actually build something real and ship it.

The Stack

• React + TypeScript + Vite — frontend
• Tailwind CSS — styling
• Supabase — backend & auth
• Netlify — deployment

The Hard Parts Nobody Talks About

1. PDF rendering is a nightmare.
Getting the CV to look identical in the editor, preview, and final PDF took way longer than I expected. The browser renders at 96dpi, PDF expects 72dpi — everything was scaling wrong. I ended up using transform: scale(1.3333) to match Letter size output.

2. WYSIWYG is deceptively hard.
The editor preview, the preview page, and the PDF all render slightly differently. Still working on making them 100% consistent.

3. Shipping is scarier than building.
I kept adding features instead of launching. At some point I just had to push it live.

What I'm Looking For

Honest feedback. What's broken? What's missing? What would make you actually use this over existing tools?

Drop a comment — happy to share the link and discuss the tech behind it.

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Built with React, TypeScript, Supabase, and too much coffee. ☕
🔗 Live site: resumeorbitz.com