Get started with Reactive Resume

What Reactive Resume is

Reactive Resume is a CV builder that runs in the browser. You fill in education, experience and contact details in forms, choose a template, and get a PDF that looks like it was made by someone who knows layout. The service is free and open source.

In a growing company it is needed more often than you think. You look for partnerships, you are going to present the company to an investor, and at a trade fair someone asks what you have actually done. A CV is an answer you can hand over on paper. What separates this tool from a template in the word processor is that the content and the appearance are kept apart: if you change template you do not need to rewrite anything.

Installation on Windows and Linux Mint

There is no program to install. Go to rxresu.me in any browser, create an account and log in. Windows, Linux Mint, Mac and Chromebook work the same way, because all the work happens on the site.

If you want to run the service on your own hardware, that is possible. The project is distributed as a Docker container and needs at least a PostgreSQL database alongside it, and in older versions also Minio for file storage and a Browserless service with Chrome to create PDFs (newer versions handle PDF export without that part). The guide Install Docker is then the starting point. Count on an afternoon and only do it if you have a reason, for example that the business idea is about handling other people's personal data. For an ordinary CV, the cloud version is the right choice.

Three things to do first

1. Create a CV and fill in only your name, contact details and a single experience. See how it looks right away in the preview before you spend an hour filling in everything. If you cannot find the template you want, it is better to discover that now.
2. Write the summary last, not first. It is the three lines at the top that decide whether anyone reads on, and they cannot be written until the rest is on paper.
3. Export to PDF and open the file on a phone. Whoever receives your CV often does exactly that, and a template that looks professional on screen can become unreadable on a mobile.

What to put in a CV when the experience is the company

The usual objection is that you have no experience to fill the page with. That is rarely true. The company itself is experience, and it is also the kind of experience an employer recognizes: you have had responsibility for something, you have sold to someone, you have solved something that went wrong.

So write the company as its own line with your actual role, not as a "side project". Be specific about what you did: handled the finances, built the site, stood at the trade fair and talked to sixty people. Previous assignments and association involvement belong there too. What does not belong in a CV, however, is old grades subject by subject, because anyone who wants to see them will ask for them.

The most common trap

Leaving the sharing link on. The service can publish a CV at a public address that anyone can open, and that is practical when you want to put the link in an application. The problem is that the address keeps working afterward, and a CV contains a phone number, address and sometimes more than that.

So go into the settings for each CV and turn off publishing when the application has been sent. Make it a habit to check it before the fair, because that is when the most people get the link. And never put a personal identity number in a CV at all, no matter where it is. No employer needs it to invite you to an interview.