How to Build a Developer JSON Resume 2024

Looking for a great way to share your resume with the world? Miss the developer stories from Stack Overflow? Build your own resume with JSON Resume . I have written before about JSON Resume, but this post will be a full tutorial from start to finish.

Prerequisites
Install
JSON Resume File
Themes
Export Resume to HTML
Export Resume to PDF
Host on jsonresume.org
Resources

Prerequisites

You must have Node.js and npm installed on your machine.

Install

You have two options when installing the JSON Resume CLI tool. Either install it globally or install it into a project. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will be setting up a new project and installing the CLI tool there. Making a new project allows you to easily put your resume under version control and use CI to build and publish your resume automatically.

Setup a new Node.js project:

npm init

Check out my post about NPM basics for resources for getting started with npm. I also have in that post configuration tips for faster project initialization.

After your project is set up, install the JSON Resume CLI tool and a theme:

npm install --save-dev resume-cli jsonresume-theme-bhdouglass

JSON Resume File

Create a JSON file called resume.json and input the following contents. Replace my example data with your own!

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jsonresume/resume-schema/v1.0.0/schema.json",
  "basics": {
    "name": "Brian Douglass",
    "label": "Senior Software Engineer",
    "image": "https://s.gravatar.com/avatar/12e1b1f99e0d928cd8fd8f8e270f0b93?s=256",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "url": "https://bhdouglass.com/",
    "summary": "Hello, I'm Brian Douglass a full stack engineer with over a decade of experience building software.",
    "profiles": [
      {
        "network": "GitHub",
        "username": "bhdouglass",
        "url": "https://github.com/bhdouglass/"
      }
    ]
  },
  "work": [
    {
      "name": "Enerflo",
      "location": "Huntington Beach, CA",
      "description": "A solar software company",
      "position": "Senior Software Engineer",
      "url": "https://enerflo.com/",
      "startDate": "2020-02",
      "summary": "Developing new APIs with NestJS, Typescript, GraphQL, and PostgreSQL. ",
      "highlights": [
        "Build APIs with NestJS, Typescript, GraphQL, and PostgreSQL.",
        "Maintain web apps with Laravel & Javascript."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "volunteer": [
    {
      "organization": "UBports",
      "position": "UBports App Dev Steering Committee Head",
      "url": "https://ubports.com/",
      "startDate": "2018-08",
      "endDate": "2021-04",
      "summary": "Lead the UBports App Development committee and championed developer experience for the Ubuntu Touch operating system.",
      "highlights": [
        "Support and develop the open-source Ubuntu Touch operating system."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "education": [
    {
      "institution": "Messiah College",
      "url": "https://www.messiah.edu/",
      "area": "Computer and Information Science ",
      "studyType": "Bachelor of Science",
      "startDate": "2009-09",
      "endDate": "2012-05",
      "score": "3.83",
      "courses": []
    }
  ],
  "skills": [
    {
      "name": "Backend Development",
      "keywords": [
        "Node.js"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "languages": [
    {
      "language": "English",
      "fluency": "Native speaker"
    }
  ],
  "interests": [
    {
      "name": "Board Games",
      "keywords": [
        "Terraforming Mars"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "projects": [
    {
      "name": "OpenStore",
      "description": "The official app store for Ubuntu Touch",
      "highlights": [
        "Built an API first web service built using TypeScript, Node.js, Express, and MongoDB.",
        "Created custom web client for searching and managing apps using JavaScript and Vue.js",
        "Continued to maintain Qt/QML Ubuntu Touch app for installing applications."
      ],
      "startDate": "2015-04",
      "url": "https://open-store.io/",
      "roles": [
        "Lead Developer"
      ],
      "type": "application"
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "canonical": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jsonresume/resume-schema/master/resume.json",
    "version": "v1.0.0",
    "lastModified": "2022-11-02T12:00:00",
    "theme": "kendall"
  }
}

Here is a brief overview of the different sections:

basics - Most of these fields should be self-explanatory. The profiles property is where you would list your GitHub account, LinkedIn account, and more.
work - These are all your past and current jobs. Be sure to include several highlights!
volunteer - Similar to work, but for volunteer positions.
education - This is where you would put any relevant education like college or boot fcamps.
skills - Organize your skills into groups and list the individual skills in the keywords property.
languages - These aren’t programming languages, but rather spoken languages.
interests - This is a list of anything you enjoy.
projects - List any side projects here. This section is especially important when your work section is a little light.
meta - This can be mostly left as is, the only thing you may want to change is the theme, which we will cover later.

For the full explanation of all the different sections and properties, check out jsonresume/resume-schema on GitHub . And check out my full JSON resume for inspiration.

Themes

When exporting your resume you can choose from over 400 different themes . You can preview a few of them on jsonresume.org . Previously we got the bhdouglass theme by installing jsonresume-theme-bhdouglass. Change your theme by installing the specific package and specify the theme when exporting via the CLI tool. Use --theme jsonresume-theme-bhdouglass for the theme we installed earlier. You will also want to specify the theme property in the meta section of your resume.json file to set your theme when hosting on jsonresume.org . Not all themes are available on theregistry, so check the list before picking one for the theme property.

Export Resume to HTML

You will want to have npx installed, then run:

npx resume export --theme jsonresume-theme-bhdouglass --resume resume.json resume.html

This will include all HTML and CSS needed to render your resume! You are now ready to host your resume online.

Export Resume to PDF

This is just like exporting to HTML, but specify .pdf in your output file:

npx resume export --theme jsonresume-theme-bhdouglass --resume resume.json resume.pdf

This is perfect for sending your resume via email or an online application.

Host on jsonresume.org

You can freely host your resume at jsonresume.org . All you need to do is create a Gist in Github and name it resume.json. Copy the contents of your resume.json file and save the Gist. You can then view your resume at https://registry.jsonresume.org/<your GitHub username>. For example, you can find my resume at https://gist.github.com/bhdouglass/389f030a5e5f578a5b64d26ee45c3ef4 and view it at https://registry.jsonresume.org/bhdouglass .

How to Build a Developer JSON Resume 2024

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