Suggestions for good online resume generators now that emurse is gone?
August 20, 2012 7:12 PM Subscribe
In the past I really liked emurse.com for resume writing. I could enter my information, build and customize resumes easily, and export them (in various styles) as attractive Word documents. Now that AOL has killed emurse, the two sites it offers as alternatives don't have the above functionality. Can the hive mind recommend a replacement?
I'm giving cvmaker a try, but it has fewer style possibilities, and I can't export as rich text or a Word document. Free would be great, but I'm also willing to pay a bit to do what I used to be able to do at emurse. FWIW I'm also on a Mac, running Lion, if there's a standalone software option. Thanks!
I'm giving cvmaker a try, but it has fewer style possibilities, and I can't export as rich text or a Word document. Free would be great, but I'm also willing to pay a bit to do what I used to be able to do at emurse. FWIW I'm also on a Mac, running Lion, if there's a standalone software option. Thanks!
Just to clarify the question (because I need this too): You are looking for a website that allows you to enter all the info you might ever need on a resume, then allows you to select which particular items you want to add to a resume version to email or print off at a given time? Wow, that would be handy! In a job hunt, you may want to emphasize particular areas of experience to one employer versus another. A one-size-fits-all resume may be great for some - even most. But not for all. I hope this question gets some more attention.
posted by skypieces at 7:59 AM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by skypieces at 7:59 AM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
Here is something that might get you closer to where you ant to go. It is called Resunate. It is a for-fee service, though there is a free option for lite stuff. It helps customize your resume for different employers. There are more bells and whistles to it than you may need, but in the absence of anything else nowadays, it may help.
posted by skypieces at 8:37 AM on August 21, 2012
posted by skypieces at 8:37 AM on August 21, 2012
Yeah, so that was basically the idea we had with Emurse.
Focus the user on the content of the resume. Each item of information was it's own independent thing, and you could assemble as many resumes as you needed based on information you already entered. You could create resumes super quickly for each and every job application.
All of the design was handed off to a template engine that we wrote. Click on a picture of the format you want it in and instantly it's available in pdf/rtf/doc/html/whatever (we had servers dedicated just to rendering things in various formats so it was all pre-cached, etc.)
The other thing that was super popular were the email alerts when someone viewed your resume via your resume link (either pw protected or open/indexable). The email alert contained geolocation of the ip, referrer, if they downloaded a hard copy, etc. Countless testimonials of people 'watching' their resume get passed around an organization.
There were a ton of other little things that ended up being underdeveloped for all the reasons an acquisition typically entails. Happy to share if anyone else is looking to do it (been there, done that, on to the next, etc.)
IMO, the interent is too focused on trying to replace the resume without acknowledging that the traditional paper resume still has its place. No one is printing off a linkedin profile and bringing it to a job interview. Especially outside of tech (many of our users were military, blue collar or academic -- segments ignored by most internet companies).
Resunate looks neat.
posted by alexrudloff at 9:06 AM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
Focus the user on the content of the resume. Each item of information was it's own independent thing, and you could assemble as many resumes as you needed based on information you already entered. You could create resumes super quickly for each and every job application.
All of the design was handed off to a template engine that we wrote. Click on a picture of the format you want it in and instantly it's available in pdf/rtf/doc/html/whatever (we had servers dedicated just to rendering things in various formats so it was all pre-cached, etc.)
The other thing that was super popular were the email alerts when someone viewed your resume via your resume link (either pw protected or open/indexable). The email alert contained geolocation of the ip, referrer, if they downloaded a hard copy, etc. Countless testimonials of people 'watching' their resume get passed around an organization.
There were a ton of other little things that ended up being underdeveloped for all the reasons an acquisition typically entails. Happy to share if anyone else is looking to do it (been there, done that, on to the next, etc.)
IMO, the interent is too focused on trying to replace the resume without acknowledging that the traditional paper resume still has its place. No one is printing off a linkedin profile and bringing it to a job interview. Especially outside of tech (many of our users were military, blue collar or academic -- segments ignored by most internet companies).
Resunate looks neat.
posted by alexrudloff at 9:06 AM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: skypieces, yes indeedy, that is what I want, and I had it before with emurse. I could also rearrange sections at will, which was great.
alexrudloff, thanks so much for your response! I didn't just like emurse.com, I loved it. In addition to the easy customization, I found that entering content into a web form helped me focus and reduced my "where do I begin?" and "how does it look so far?" anxiety, which can be a bit excessive at times. The ability to export in different formats was incredibly useful, whether the final result was heading to print or not. I hope you can find someone to collaborate on a basic version; please keep us in the loop if you do. Right now I am applying for internships, but will be on the actual job hunt this time next year!
posted by sister nunchaku of love and mercy at 9:29 AM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
alexrudloff, thanks so much for your response! I didn't just like emurse.com, I loved it. In addition to the easy customization, I found that entering content into a web form helped me focus and reduced my "where do I begin?" and "how does it look so far?" anxiety, which can be a bit excessive at times. The ability to export in different formats was incredibly useful, whether the final result was heading to print or not. I hope you can find someone to collaborate on a basic version; please keep us in the loop if you do. Right now I am applying for internships, but will be on the actual job hunt this time next year!
posted by sister nunchaku of love and mercy at 9:29 AM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks to all for the input. I went ahead and finished up using cvmaker. Everything else was pretty much overkill for what I needed: a quick and easy way to create an attractive (if somewhat plain) resume with my content in a format readable by nearly anyone. In the end I exported it to PDF, but if I could have put it in Word easily I'd have tweaked the fonts and format a bit more. Still hoping for something more like emurse.com by the next time I have to update my resume.
posted by sister nunchaku of love and mercy at 6:06 PM on August 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by sister nunchaku of love and mercy at 6:06 PM on August 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
We became friendly with the guys over at Indeed.com through the years. I know they built an emurse-inspired resume builder at one point. Not sure if they ever did proper exporting.
I checked out re.vu recently. Pretty cool but ignores the traditional resume aspects a little too much (imo). VisualCV made a pretty good push for awhile and has some cool functionality. LinkedIN might seem too internety, but they've stepped up their game in the resume/CV department lately.
Also, this may seem like total anathema, but general word processing templates have come a long way since 2006 when we launched. Add in dropbox for safe keeping and it's not nearly the mess it was. Obvious shortcomings in the personal branding department. Something like ypickme might help maybe.
I'm half tempted to do a super basic version of Emurse just as a good-will project (free/open) but I can't seem to find the time. If someone else reads this and has the same notion, feel free to reach out. I'll help. Now that I think about it, there was an hResume plugin for wordpress that tried. Might still be out there.
posted by alexrudloff at 7:32 AM on August 21, 2012 [6 favorites]