Resumes: A Programmer’s Perspective — Automating Resume Making with GitHub Actions

Introduction

Crafting and maintaining a resume is an essential but often cumbersome task. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just starting your career, keeping your resume up to date can be a time-consuming chore. But what if I told you that you could leverage the power of Git and JSON to streamline this process and have your resume ready at all times? In this article, we’ll explore how you can use GitHub Actions to automate the creation of your resume, making the whole experience smoother and more efficient.

Genesis

Recently, I embarked on a journey to learn more about GitHub Actions, a powerful tool that allows you to automate various tasks on GitHub’s platform. I was eager to dive into this world and decided to develop a personal project to explore its capabilities. The challenge was finding a project that not only aligned with my interests but also had real-world utility.

For the past two years, I had been using an open-source project called JSON Resume, which enables you to transform a resume.json file into a PDF or HTML resume using one of its 250+ themes. This tool had been a game-changer for me, but there was a persistent issue. I had never backed up my resume.json file to a GitHub repository because I found it tiresome to manually regenerate the PDF every time I made an update.

With GitHub Actions, I saw a potential solution to this problem. The idea was simple: whenever I pushed changes to my resume.json file within the master branch of a GitHub repository, GitHub Actions would automatically generate an updated PDF for me. No more manual PDF generation, no more worries about losing my latest resume version.

How It Works

Here’s a step-by-step guide to implementing this resume automation process:

1. Fork a copy of the My-JSON Resume Repository: Begin by forking the “My-JSON Resume” repository on GitHub. This will create a copy of the repository under your GitHub account.
2. Edit the resume.json file: Open the forked repository and edit the resume.json file to reflect your latest qualifications, experiences, and accomplishments. Ensure that your resume adheres to the schema provided by the JSON Resume project.
3. Push your changes to the master branch: Commit your changes and push them to the master branch of your forked repository. This action will trigger the GitHub Actions workflow.
4. Let GitHub Actions do the rest: GitHub Actions will automatically detect the changes in your resume.json file, initiate the PDF generation process, and store the updated PDF resume within your repository.

The Result

With this setup, you’ve transformed your resume management process into an efficient, automated workflow. Whenever you need to update your resume, you can simply make the changes to your JSON file and push them to your GitHub repository. GitHub Actions will take care of the rest, generating an updated PDF version for you.

Here’s a surprise note:

Besides generating a PDF resume, the project also creates an index.html file. By setting up your repository to host a website with GitHub Pages, you can showcase your resume online for the world to see.

To set up GitHub Pages for your repository, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to your repository: Go to the GitHub repository where you’ve been automating your resume.
2. Click on “Settings”: At the top of your repository, click on the “Settings” tab.
3. Scroll down to the “GitHub Pages” section: This section allows you to configure GitHub Pages for your repository.
4. Select the “master branch” as the source: In the “Source” dropdown, choose “master branch” as your publishing source.
5. Save your settings: Click “Save” to apply the changes.
6. Access your website: After saving, GitHub will provide a link to your hosted website. It usually follows the format: https://<username>.github.io/<repository-name>. In this case, it would display your resume at a user-friendly URL for easy sharing.

Check out mine at aceamarco.github.io/resume/

Now, not only do you have an automated and always-up-to-date PDF resume, but you can also share it online with potential employers and collaborators.

In conclusion, by harnessing the power of GitHub Actions, you’ve not only made your life easier but also gained valuable experience in automating tasks.

The title for this article, “Resumes: A Programmer’s Perspective,” draws inspiration from the book “Computer Systems: A Programmer’s Perspective” by Randal Bryant and David O’Hallaron. Just as the book is considered a valuable resource for programmers, this GitHub Actions-based resume automation can be a valuable tool for professionals looking to simplify and streamline their resume management process. So, why not take the leap and make your resume management as efficient as your code?

If you’re interested in collaborating on projects like this, feel free to contact me through my GitHub profile or drop me a message on LinkedIn. I’m always eager to connect with like-minded individuals looking to collaborate of projects together.