How to Write a Resume in LaTeX

One important step in any Engineering student’s life is looking for internships and quite possibly jobs. In order to do this, a resume is more than required. The whole idea of writing a resume in LaTeX is mainly to show off, especially if you are applying for a job that requires proficiency in LaTeX or writing scientific reports.

I just want  to add that this is not one of those “how to write a good resume” posts. I am not qualified to make an comments on the validity of one format over another, so I will just show you my resume template written in LaTeX.

This is just a “how to write a resume in LaTeX” sort of post.

For easily understood reasons, I have blocked the contact details in the resume, but otherwise the content is accurate and up to date, so I am open to judgement.

If you are a potential employer, feel free to contact me via the blog and I will reply with my contact information and anything else that you might require as soon as possible.

The resume and the code are open to suggestions and discussions, so feel free to comment on both. I admit to being a sort of LaTeX intermediate user and a regular applicant for jobs, so both the code and the content could possibly be improved.

Anyway, the resulting resume can be seen here, and the LaTeX code is presented below and discussed.

1. Formatting the Document

\documentclass[11pt]{article} %default text size is 11%
%Dimensions of page%
\topmargin=-0.5in %1 in added by default%
\oddsidemargin=0.0in %1 in added by default%
\evensidemargin=0.0in %1 in added by default%
\textwidth=6.5in %width of text on page%
\textheight=9.0in %How tall the text body is allowed
%to be on each page
\marginparwidth=0.5in

Notice that I have used the article  document class. I wasn’t really happy with the amount of space left on the top so I chose a negative value for the top margin to shrink it. I haven’t printed this out yet so I’m not sure it will work, but it should be ok.

Either way, this part is pretty self-explanatory (especially with the comments). No specific packages are used given that I wanted to keep this as simple as possible.

2. Contact Information

I used a large font for the name and then just the 11pt regular for the contact information, given that most likely people are more interested in your name first and contact information later. I also feel that the look of the font for the name is pretty awesome.

\begin{document} %Name, adress and contact
%details%
\centerline{\Huge \sc Bogdan Tanasoiu}
\vspace{5pt}
\centerline{2525 Some Ave. \textbullet \hspace{2pt} Chicago, IL 60xxx \textbullet \hspace{5pt} (773) xxx xxxx}
\vspace{5pt}
\centerline{btxxxxxx@xxx.edu}
\noindent
\line(1,0){470}

There is nothing spectacular here, just the usual formatting.

3. Summary

Other people call this Executive Summary or they start the resume with Objective. I am not a fan of the whole Objective  idea for many reasons that I shall not go into. However, the Summary is intended to be a sort of abstract for the whole thing, and the technical and computer skills listed are designed to be the a sort of Key Words for the whole thing. You can say this is a sort of SEO for resumes if you will. The plan is for the reviewer to quickly see if you have the skills required for the job or not. Once he/she establishes that you do, the more detailed information follows.

\section*{Summary}
Five years of experience in an Industrial setting, main focus on material and process management, process quality and design improvement.
\section*{Skills}
%Engineering Software Skills
Proficient with the following engineering software: \\\\
\centerline{\hfill $\bullet$ SolidWorks \hfill $\bullet$ Abaqus \hfill $\bullet$ MatLab/Octave \hfill $\bullet$ Mathematica \hfill $\bullet$ Latex \hfill} \\\\
%Programming Skills
Can program in: \\\\
\centerline{\hfill $\bullet$ C++ \hfill $\bullet$ Python \hfill $\bullet$ MatLab/Octave \hfill} \\\\
%PC Skills
Other computer skills include: \\\\
\centerline{\hfill $\bullet$ Microsoft Office Pack (Word, Excel, Outlook) \hfill $\bullet$ UNIX and Microsoft operating systems \hfill} \\\\

\centerline{\line(1,0){270}}

The lines above and below the Summary and Skills are merely intended to attract attention to the fact that this is an important section of the resume.

4. Education

I tried to keep this part short for various reasons and just went for some regular neat formatting as shown. The code only shows the first item in the resume, but the other two are just copy-pastes of the same code, with the information changed.

\section*{Education}
%Illinois Institute of Technology stuff%
\textbf{Illinois Institute of Technology} \hfill 2013 - present \\
\textit{\textbf{Ph.D. Program in Solid Mechanics}}
\begin{itemize}
\item Specializing in Dynamic Behaviour of Materials
\item focus on high-strain rate deformation behaviour of Aluminum alloys
\end{itemize}
\smallskip

5. Professional Experience

Pretty much the same as above goes for this section of the resume. Notice that the information is bulleted and I tried to keep it as concise yet as descriptive as possible. I’m not sure how succesful that was, but I tried my best.

\section*{Professional Experience}
%IIT
\noindent
\textbf{Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL} \\
\textit{\textbf{Teaching Assistant (Intro to Mechanics, Intro to Thermodynamics)}} \hfill 08/2013 - present
\begin{itemize}
\item Solve as many student course-related issues as possible without involving the professor
\item Keep a database of student grades for various activities
\item Grade homework and presenting solutions to students in class
\item Offer assistance to students during predetermined office hours
\item other activities as necessary (proctor exams, keep attendance etc.)
\end{itemize}
\bigskip

6. Other Information

I added foreign languages spoken and soft skills to this section and ended everything with a horizontal line just to round off everything and signal the conclusion of the resume. I think you can also make new sections here for hobbies, other skills, published papers or whatever else you think necessary.

%Foreign Languages Spoken
\section*{Other Languages}
\centerline{\hfill $\bullet$ Romanian - Native \hfill $\bullet$ German - Intermediate \hfill}
\bigskip

%Soft skills
\section*{Soft Skills}
\centerline{\hfill $\bullet$ Time management \hfill $\bullet$ Leadership \hfill $\bullet$ Group work ethic \hfill $\bullet$ Presentation skills \hfill}
\bigskip

\centerline{\line(1,0){270}}

\end{document}

Concluding Remarks

I hope you enjoyed this and you found it helpful in some way. The complete code can be found in this .pdf file since WordPress won’t let me upload a .tex file. Feel free to copy-paste it into your favourite TeX-editor and compile it.

If you like this format, feel free to use it for your own resumes or pass it on to others, just drop me a comment telling me if it helped.

Have a great Weekend everyone!