WP CV/Resume website with Timelines

After having a Curriculum Vitae that just listed my jobs/experience I decided to develop an on-line CV with timelines and images. See maxdrake.tk for my resume.

There are a number of free and paid Timeline plugins which I tested, I used this blog to find free plugins.

After testing some of them out that took up the page, I decided that what I wanted was a side-bar timeline with  the main information on the pages. The plugin that I decided to use was ANG Timeline.

Although there was a special Timeline page with a special Event category for filtering the different timelines I found that that I could use the Post and Category setup to create separate posts of Work and other interest items. Using the categories I was then able to filter each timeline to only show the specific categories on the specific page.

I also  used Display Posts Shortcode and Columns Extension for Display Posts Shortcode that allow me to put the posts on a page and the columns extension allows for multiple columns on the page.

One issue I had was making sure that the correct timelines were showing on the correct page. I initially used Widget Context Plugin but found it a bit buggy, so used Widget Options plugin that I found was good at controlling the timeline displays.

I am slowly building up the pages for the CV which can be found here.

Themes.

I initially used the free Pronto theme, which has a really good setup for showing posts, but it only did that on the main page and showed all the posts, regardless of category, and not on other pages.

I would need to do an extra bit of filtering to allow for only a specific post category to show on the first page and make template pages for the other pages to get them to have only certain categories showing

I currently have the twenty sixteen theme.  I will explore other themes later, but for the present I am trying to populate the posts, so themes will need to wait for another day.

There are other resume/CV plugins and themes, I just noticed this Blog. I did look at other themes but found that I would need to do a bit of coding (especially CSS) to get them to the format that I wanted. Also the Free themes were cut-down premium themes and I noticed that realistically you would need to go to the premium version to get the overall elements that you would need for a Resume.

Free Domain and Web Host

I use Freenom to get free domain names, they are not the most elegant extensions, but great to try before you buy. Also for your specific name its most probably available. This I use on my VPS (virtual private server). If you have your own paid  web host they most probably can transfer the free DNS’s across.

I have used AwardSpace in the past for free hosting, but they have been a bit scratchy with me as I only use their very cheap annual offers and I think they are trying to get people to move oer to a paid option. Their free option has no limited duration. The issue with Awardspace is that they do not handle the freenom DNS’s, so you have to use their free DNS’s that have an extension of .dx.am  (not the prettiest).

I am currently using Infinity Free for some free web hosting, and that also does not let you use the Freenom DNS’s. But has its own free DNS’s with endings such as .rf.gd  which also is not pretty, but its free.

Google Analytics

Who’s visited your site? Anyone?One way of checking to see if there have been any hits on your site is to use Free Google Analytics. You paste a bit of code into your Theme “Header.php” file after creating a Google Analytics account and then you can check the analytics page of your website to see if anyone has visited. The data is anonymous only down to country or state level.

I wont go into setting up Google Analytics, there are lots of videos on YouTube so use that resource for setting it up. (You’ll need a Gmail account).

Conclusion

I found the timelines a good way to add information in the way I traditionally have presented my CV.

The timelines show depth, and the different timelines show breadth, to my experience and convey them simply with a date, header and an image on a tree.

The download CV and email links were important so that anyone interested can take away a simple, printable resume or directly contact me with the mailto: link.

I had to fiddle a bit with the site identity tagline to be able to get a couple of lines (instead of just one).

Now I have the framework, I can go and collect other images of work I have been involved in to add to the site.

Overall I am quite happy with the layout and content, hopefully it will help me get a job soon.

Update 23rd Dec 2018, a year later, it has not been looked at very much (I check the Google Analytics of the site) and I do send it as a link as well as a PDF or Word document. So although I enjoyed creating it, and have recently updated it to HTTPS, it has not been effective, to date, in helping me get work.