resume-rendering

Overview

A tailored resume only helps once it is a file that parses cleanly and looks professional. This skill turns the tailored content into a typeset PDF with RenderCV, checks it the way an applicant tracking system reads it, and produces the Word twin and cover letter some portals ask for. It replaces hand-made HTML-to-PDF conversions and two-column templates whose text comes out scrambled.

Mental model

• Content and design are separate. The candidate's facts live in cv.sections of a YAML file; the look lives in the design: block. Tailoring changes the content; the design stays fixed.
• The parser reads the text layer, not the picture. A resume is checked by extracting its text and reading it top to bottom.
• One source, three files: <Name>_Resume.pdf, the same content as .docx, and the cover letter as PDF.

Rules

Build the YAML

Start once with rendercv new "Full Name" --theme engineeringresumes, then replace the sample content. Structure:

cv:
  name: Jane Doe
  location: Berlin, Germany
  email: [email protected]
  phone: "+49 30 1234567"
  website: https://janedoe.dev/
  social_networks:
    - network: LinkedIn
      username: janedoe
  sections:
    summary:
      - Backend engineer, 7 years in payments; led the PSD3 migration at a 40-person fintech.
    experience:
      - company: Finly
        position: Senior Backend Engineer
        location: Berlin
        start_date: 2022-03
        end_date: present
        highlights:
          - Cut payment failure rate from 2.1% to 0.6% by redesigning retry logic (Go, Kafka)
    education:
      - institution: TU Munich
        area: Computer Science
        degree: MSc
        start_date: 2014-10
        end_date: 2017-03
    skills:
      - label: Languages
        details: Go, Python, SQL
design:
  theme: engineeringresumes
  page:
    size: a4
    show_top_note: false
    show_footer: false
  header:
    connections:
      show_icons: false
      phone_number_format: international
  templates:
    experience_entry:
      main_column: "**POSITION**, COMPANY -- LOCATION\nDATE\nSUMMARY\nHIGHLIGHTS"
      date_and_location_column: ""
    education_entry:
      main_column: "**INSTITUTION**, DEGREE_WITH_AREA -- LOCATION\nDATE\nSUMMARY\nHIGHLIGHTS"
      date_and_location_column: ""
    normal_entry:
      main_column: "**NAME** -- **LOCATION**\nDATE\nSUMMARY\nHIGHLIGHTS"
      date_and_location_column: ""

Section titles are free text (experience, Projects, Berufserfahrung); Markdown **bold** works inside entries. Dates as YYYY-MM or present.

ATS-safe design

Avoid classic, engineeringclassic, opal, moderncv, and ink for portal submissions: they render social links as bare usernames or icon glyphs, or move dates away from their entries.

Render and check

rendercv render Jane_Doe_CV.yaml --pdf-path Jane_Doe_Resume.pdf --markdown-path Jane_Doe_Resume.md -nohtml -nopng
doc-export check Jane_Doe_Resume.pdf --max-pages 2 --text 40

Read the text output: name and contact first, then sections in order, each job's title, company, and dates together, no junk characters, no lost bullets. With the templates above every date follows its entry's title line; if a date still lands elsewhere (a custom entry type without the template), add that entry type to templates the same way and re-render. Cut content rather than shrink fonts when the page count is over the market's norm.

Word twin and cover letter

• DOCX: replace the first line of the generated Markdown (# Jane Doe's CV) with # Jane Doe, then doc-export docx Jane_Doe_Resume.md -o Jane_Doe_Resume.docx --font Calibri --size 10.5 --margins 0.75in --paper a4.
• Cover letter: write cover-letter.md, then doc-export pdf cover-letter.md -o Jane_Doe_Cover_Letter.pdf --font Calibri --size 11 --margins 1in --paper a4 --max-pages 1.
• File names carry the candidate's name, never "resume_final_v3".

Examples

Example 1: icon theme

❌ theme: classic with icons on. pdftotext shows `` before the email and "janedoe" instead of the LinkedIn URL.

✅ theme: engineeringresumes, show_icons: false: the text layer starts Jane Doe | Berlin, Germany | [email protected] | linkedin.com/in/janedoe.

Example 2: two-column template

❌ A two-column HTML template printed to PDF: the parser reads the skills sidebar in the middle of the first job.

✅ RenderCV's single-column theme; the check shows each job's title, company, dates, and bullets together.

Checklist

• Content in YAML matches the tailored resume exactly; nothing invented.
• engineeringresumes (or sb2nov/ember), icons, top note, and footer off, paper size for the market.
• doc-export check clean: within the page count, no private-use glyphs, text in reading order.
• DOCX twin when a portal or recruiter wants Word; cover letter PDF in the same style.
• Files named <First>_<Last>_Resume.pdf / .docx / _Cover_Letter.pdf and saved next to the YAML source.

Composition / References

• ats-optimization — what goes into the content and how it is tailored.
• resume-conventions — market rules: length, photo, personal data, date formats.
• document-export — the DOCX and cover-letter exports and the PDF check.
• RenderCV documentation