Writing Your Resume In HTML

References: PDF 995 Mozilla

I'd like to suggest that there is, contrary to popular belief, more than one program that can be used to write your resume.

I won't promise you that along the way you're not going to run into a few bumps.  What I can promise is there are alternatives, and if you like to keep current on Web technologies, maybe there is something you can learn too.

For the past I-don't-know-how-many years, my resume has always been in Word format.  It's the de-facto, if frustrating, standard enforced by practically every company and recruiter in the known world today.

What, might you ask, is wrong with this?  Here are a few examples:

o Semantic overlap of data and presentation
o Differing file formats for differing versions
o Bloated format (big files)
o Publishing to the web is terrible
o Word is not FrameMaker

So I decided after one too many fights with Word to make it display my resume the way *I* wanted and not the way *it* wanted, I would take back control of my resume!

HTML and CSS

By now you're thinking sure HTML, what's the big deal?  And CSS too even that has been around for a few years so what.

Well, CSS and HTML are the first steps towards what Tim Berners Lee views as the next revolution in web technology, the semantic web. 

With CSS, you can write clean HTML and not worry about the formatting.  If you tag the HTML data in the right way, it is possible to tinker with the look of your document in a clear and consistent manner, and the end results can be spectacular!

I'll have more to say on CSS in the future.  But for now let me illustrate the benefits I achieved by sitting down to write my resume in HTML plus CSS:

o File size - 15Kb vs. 35 kb
o Ubiquitous - everyone has a web browser
o Clean separation of data and formatting
o Web ready

So what are the drawbacks?

o People still expect Word format. 

Well most people still expect a resume in Word format.  My answer is to send them a pdf which I create using PDF 995, a free driver that creates PDF documents, a file format nearly as ubiquitous as Web Browsers and Word documents.

o Ease of Editing.

Personally I prefer to edit my HTML by hand, since most tools still generate far too much garbage HTML for my liking.  But if you absolutely must edit something using WYSIWYG, try the Mozilla suite of products, their composer tool is just what your're looking for and it's free (as in beer).

I hope you see that there are some good reasons to consider writing your resume in HTML and CSS.  Stay tuned for more ruminations on CSS, including some links to some sites that show the amazing potential of CSS.