How to Write a Resume in Markdown

Why write your resume in Markdown?

Markdown is a lightweight plain-text format that converts cleanly to HTML and PDF. It has become the format of choice for developers and tech professionals for several reasons:

• ATS-safe by default — Plain text with no hidden formatting, tables, or text boxes that confuse ATS parsers.
• Version control — Track every change in Git, diff sections between applications, and revert to any previous version.
• Distraction-free — No toolbar clicking. You stay in flow and focus on the content, not the tool.
• Portable — Edit in VS Code, Vim, Obsidian, or any text editor. The Markdown file is yours forever.
• Consistent output — The same Markdown produces the same PDF every time — no mysterious formatting surprises.

Markdown syntax quick reference

You only need a small subset of Markdown for a resume. Here is everything you will use:

1. Name & contact information

The first line of your resume is your full name as an # heading. Directly below it, put a single contact line using a middle dot (·) or pipe (|) as a separator.

# Jane Doe
jane@email.com · linkedin.com/in/janedoe · github.com/janedoe · San Francisco, CA

For links, you can use bare URLs — they will become hyperlinks in the exported PDF. Or you can write them as Markdown links for cleaner display:

# Jane Doe
jane@email.com · [linkedin.com/in/janedoe](https://linkedin.com/in/janedoe) · [github.com/janedoe](https://github.com/janedoe) · San Francisco, CA

2. Professional summary

A summary is optional but valuable — it is the first thing an ATS reads closely and the first thing a recruiter scans. Keep it to 2–3 sentences. Front-load your most important keywords.

## Summary

Full-stack engineer with 7 years of experience building high-traffic web applications
in React and Node.js. Proven track record of shipping features at scale and mentoring
junior engineers. Open to senior IC roles at product-focused companies.

3. Work experience

This is the most important section. The pattern for each role:

• Bold job title and company name, separated by ·
• Italic start–end dates on the same or next line
• Bullet points that start with an action verb (Reduced, Built, Led, Shipped...)
• Quantify wherever possible — percentages, headcount, dollar amounts
• Most impactful bullet goes first

## Experience

**Senior Software Engineer** · Stripe
San Francisco, CA · *Jan 2022 – Present*

- Architected a payment retry system that reduced failed transactions by 28%
- Led a cross-functional team of 6 engineers to ship Stripe Tax ahead of schedule
- Reduced billing API p99 latency from 800 ms to 210 ms by rewriting in Go

---

**Software Engineer** · Shopify
Remote · *Jun 2019 – Dec 2021*

- Built the order fulfillment dashboard used by 1 M+ merchants worldwide
- Migrated legacy Rails services to a GraphQL API, cutting mobile load time by 35%
- Wrote the onboarding documentation adopted by 3 engineering teams

4. Education

Keep the education section short unless you are a new graduate. Bold the degree, follow with the school name, and put the dates in italics.

## Education

**B.S. Computer Science** · MIT
Cambridge, MA · *2015 – 2019* · GPA: 3.9

5. Skills

A plain comma-separated list of skills is readable but hard to scan. Using bold category labels helps both ATS parsing and human readers:

## Skills

**Languages:** TypeScript, Python, Go, SQL, Bash
**Frontend:** React, Next.js, Tailwind CSS, GraphQL
**Backend:** Node.js, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, Redis
**Infra:** AWS (Lambda, ECS, S3), Terraform, Docker, GitHub Actions

6. Projects

For developers, a projects section can be as persuasive as work experience. Link the project name, add a one-line tech stack in italics, and use bullets to highlight impact metrics.

## Projects

**[Markdown Resume Builder](https://markdownresume.app)**
*Next.js, Puppeteer, Tailwind CSS · Open Source*

- Markdown-to-PDF resume builder with 4 professional themes and real-time preview
- 3,000+ monthly visitors · 400+ GitHub stars

---

**[OpenSearch VS Code Extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com)**
*TypeScript, VS Code Extension API*

- Fast codebase search extension; 5,000+ installs
- Reduced average file-open time by 60% compared to native search

7. Custom directives

Beyond standard Markdown, this app supports two custom inline directives that map to themed CSS classes:

:accent[text]

Renders text in the theme's accent colour (blue by default). Use it to draw attention to availability, a standout credential, or your current status.

:accent[Open to full-time roles · Available April 2026]

:muted[text]

Renders text in a lighter, muted colour — ideal for secondary information that should stay on the page but not compete for attention.

:muted[References available upon request]
:muted[Work authorisation: US citizen · No sponsorship required]

ATS compatibility tips

Applicant Tracking Systems parse your resume before a human ever reads it. A resume that fails ATS parsing may be rejected automatically. Here is how to stay safe:

• Use standard section names — Stick to "Experience", "Education", "Skills", "Projects", "Summary". Avoid creative alternatives like "Where I've worked" or "My toolkit" — ATS may not recognise them.
• Single column only — Multi-column layouts cause ATS to read text out of order. All themes in this builder are single-column by design.
• No tables, no text boxes — Both are either invisible or garbled in ATS output. Bullet points and plain text only.
• Spell out acronyms once — Write "Kubernetes (K8s)" on first use so both the full name and abbreviation are indexed.
• Mirror the job description — Copy exact phrases from the posting into your bullets and summary. "Managed AWS infrastructure" matches better than "ran cloud servers".
• Keep to one page — ATS systems don't penalise multi-page resumes, but recruiters spending 6 seconds skimming do. One tight page beats two loose ones.

Complete example resume

Here is a full, realistic Markdown resume you can copy directly into the editor. It uses every technique covered in this guide.

# Alex Chen
alex@email.com · [linkedin.com/in/alexchen](https://linkedin.com/in/alexchen) · [github.com/alexchen](https://github.com/alexchen) · Seattle, WA

:accent[Open to senior full-stack roles · Available April 2026]

---

## Summary

Full-stack engineer with 6 years of experience shipping high-traffic React and
Node.js applications. Strong background in performance optimisation and developer
tooling. Former Stripe and AWS engineer.

---

## Experience

**Senior Software Engineer** · Stripe
Seattle, WA · *Mar 2022 – Present*

- Built the Stripe Tax calculation engine now used by 40,000+ merchants globally
- Reduced billing API response time by 55% by rewriting aggregation logic in Go
- Mentored 4 junior engineers through weekly code reviews and 1:1s

---

**Software Engineer** · Amazon Web Services
Seattle, WA · *Aug 2019 – Feb 2022*

- Contributed to the CloudWatch Logs Insights query engine (50 M+ daily queries)
- Migrated a legacy Perl data pipeline to Python + Spark, cutting runtime from 4 h to 18 min
- Wrote the internal onboarding documentation adopted by 12 new team members

---

## Skills

**Languages:** TypeScript, Python, Go, SQL, Bash
**Frontend:** React, Next.js, Tailwind CSS, Vite
**Backend:** Node.js, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, Redis, DynamoDB
**Infra:** AWS (Lambda, ECS, S3, CloudFront), Terraform, Docker, GitHub Actions

---

## Projects

**[Markdown Resume Builder](https://markdownresume.app)**
*Next.js, Puppeteer, Tailwind CSS · Open Source*

- Markdown-to-PDF resume builder with 4 professional themes and real-time preview
- 3,000+ monthly visitors · 400+ GitHub stars

---

## Education

**B.S. Computer Science** · University of Washington
Seattle, WA · *2015 – 2019* · GPA: 3.8

---

:muted[References available upon request]

Exporting to PDF

Once your Markdown is ready, exporting takes about 30 seconds:

1. 1Open the editor — Go to /editor or click Start Building on the homepage.
2. 2Paste your Markdown — Replace the sample content in the left pane with your resume. You will see a live preview on the right.
3. 3Pick a theme — Open the sidebar and choose from Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, or Mashhad. Each has its own typographic character — see the template gallery to compare them.
4. 4Adjust styling — Use the font, size, color, and spacing sliders to fine-tune the look. Changes apply in real time — no reload needed.
5. 5Export — Click the Export button. A PDF will download in a few seconds, rendered server-side by Puppeteer.