Rock Star Developer Meme

LinkedIn’s ‘Easy Apply’ feature streamlines job applications, enabling candidates to submit their profiles directly to recruiters. This bypasses the need for filling out additional forms or attaching separate resume files. Kudos to the employers who embrace this feature, as it helps them stand out in the competitive candidate-driven market.

However, the current employer-driven market often has different requirements, including the need for a detailed resume in a printable document format. This presents a challenge since LinkedIn’s existing functionality restricts the export of profiles to PDFs with significant data loss and limited control over layout.

This post explores how you can use LinkedIn as your primary data source to craft adaptable resumes in both PDF and web page formats, leveraging open standards and automation for greater efficiency.

Step 1. Export your resume data to a standard format

The JSON Resume project seeks to standardize resume data in JSON format, providing a foundation for various applications.

To export your LinkedIn profile into JSON Resume format, use the JSON Resume Exporter, a Chrome extension that also functions in Edge.

For alternatives, consider the LinkedIn to Json Résumé service, which utilizes LinkedIn’s native export files.

Additionally, for those with a technical inclination, the LinkedIn API provides another method for extracting your data.

Step 2. Check and amend your data if necessary

Once you have exported your data, it’s important to thoroughly review it for any personal or sensitive information. Ensure that all details are accurate and relevant to your purposes, amend if necessary.

For assistance with syntax validation according to the JSON Resume Schema, consider using the JSONResume Editor plugin for VS Code. This tool can also potentially help with previewing your resume and generating a PDF version.

Step 3. Build you resume

Upload your JSON Resume data as a gist named exactly resume.json, similar to this example. You can then view your resume by visiting https://registry.jsonresume.org/{your_github_username}, like my own resume here.

For customization, explore different themes by previewing them here. You can preview a theme with your data by appending its name to your resume URL, such as ?theme=Resu (see my themed resume preview). Keep in mind that various themes might alter the visibility and layout of your resume’s sections, some of them honor rich formatting and markdown, and some do not. Once satisfied with a theme, update the meta section in your resume.json gist with "theme": "Theme-Name".

To convert your resume into a PDF, simply use the print function in your browser.

Alternatively, you can use JSON Resume format to import data to some visual tools such as ResuMake, or even create your own theme using available themes and NPM packages as guidance. Utilize the ‘resume-cli’ command as shown below to generate a PDF based on your custom theme:

resume export igor.pdf --resume ./my-resume.json -t ./node_modules/jsonresume-theme-full

Step 4. Profit

You now have a versatile algorithm for the on-demand generation of PDFs suitable for job applications or web pages ready to be hosted on platforms like GitHub Pages or Azure Storage.

Alternatives

For different approaches, consider these options:

  • Reactive Resume: A free, open-source graphical resume builder compatible with the JSON Resume data format.
  • Static site generators: Tools like Jekyll offer resume themes, one notable example being online-cv.
  • Proprietary services: Platforms like resume.io might offer LinkedIn data export capabilities. However, they may involve costs and use proprietary standards, potentially limiting customization options.

Discussion

As usual, I’m happy to discuss this topic with you in LinkedIn comments. If you want to support this post to get more exposure, please use this link to react, comment, or repost.