Map your CV

Probably everyone at least once in your life was searching for a job and had faced the challenge of creating an interesting resume. But when you start to create a normal list-like cv/resume you will surely say “BORING! Next!”… As I’m a geographer the idea was to create map that is the CV itself.

During my work I used QGIS. It was very simply and fast process! In the beginning I chose a coordinate system in the left down corner. From the long list of systems I used WGS84/Pseudo Mercator (EPSG:3857). But you can use every projection that fit your desired area best. After that I just used base map as the background map. To do it I had to install a plug-in called Quick Map Services, which has a convenient list of basemaps and will work much better then the old OpenLayers plugin. I decided to use OSM TF Landscape as it is clean and bright. To my basemap I also added a layer with borders between countries.You can get this at naturalearthdata

As the result I got this map:

After that, I wanted to put on the map places, where I was studying and working. For this I needed nice icons. I found it in the Internet as SVG files.

If you want to put into QGIS an icon from another source. You have to create a new points layer, and in the properties use symbol layer type as a SVG marker, and use symbol, which you saved before on your PC.

When I finished, I opened new print composer to export my map printable.

I added the name to the new composer, and it opened a new empty window. On the right side in the composition I chose landscape orientation. On the left side I chose the option Add new map, and selecting the area I wanted to show the map. I left some empty space to have a place to put more personal information.  I exported my map as image.

I finished work with my CV in Inkscape which is a vector graphics editor which is free and open source). I made there popups and some descriptions. To create popup I simply used Create rectangles and squares tool. With right click, I could choose Fill and Stroke, to change color and transparency. After this I wrote a description. I selected both – square and text, and in a main menu I chose Text -> Flow into Frame. I used straight lines to connect popups with places on the map.

This is the final result of the weekend work. I hope that you like it, and hopefully a potential employer will also appreciate it 😉

Thanks Riccardo Klinger – father of idea!

Here you can find a PDF with my map CV.