How to represent present work?

[chrisdotcode]

cf. jsonresume/resume-cli#60

The above is a discussion of how to specify present work. In short, there are three proposed solutions:

• Remove the endDate field entirely.
• Make endDate null.
• Make endDate an empty string.

I'm with the third one, and I definitely do not think that the field should be removed entirely if the work is still ongoing.

Themes can be left to the prettify the empty string.

[aloisdg]

I have no problem with all of them, but I prefer the second one aka null.

If today is between my startDate and my endDate, then it is my current job. If endDate cant be determined (absent, null or empty) and startDate is before today, then it is my current job.

I can have 2 or 3 jobs, past jobs, current jobs and future jobs.

[stp-ip]

I would favor the 2 one considering the usual practices with json.

[chrisdotcode]

So in #198, @KOLANICH suggests removing the field entirely, and replacing it all with a date array. My addition to that was that we can therefore represent presentWork with a boolean if we choose that solution.

Thoughts?

[stp-ip]

Would the usage of current as a boolean be too meaningless? Would in my opinion make everything more consistent, when used for every work, education etc. object.

[chrisdotcode]

I like current, and present, and you're right in that they need to convey meaning.

IMO, current will be fine.

[olivif]

I agree with @stp-ip here, having a flag for things that are on-going could be very useful and applicable to other objects not just education. Use cases I can think of are current jobs, current education, current projects, current publications (you can have the paper written but not published, in which case you might want to mark it as current). Same for things like events you are planning, volunteering work.

[chrisdotcode]

We've actually resolved this problem in another thread, #198.

Present work takes cares of itself with the proposed solution.

[stp-ip]

@chrisdotcode in most cases yes, but to focus on the bibjson case. They don't have a current/not published state. We could use the year from bibJSON as we would other future dates as discussed in #198, but that needs to be a special thing to look at.

[chrisdotcode]

To be frank, if it's not published... it's not published, and therefore shouldn't need to be noted.

As per another suggestion somebody else made in another thread, if we do use bibJSON for publications, we should use that as a black box format in which we follow their conventions for their necessary fields.

[stp-ip]

@chrisdotcode I agree with the convention and would not add a special string or so, but if their date string is in the future themes should know how to handle that and therefore show "current" most likely.

[beshur]

So no decision here?
Should I update endDate every day for the resume to stay valid?

[aloisdg]

@beshur It is a long talk. Read more here: #198

[fartbagxp]

Mmm, I've been following this problem for about five months now and there hasn't been any resolution yet.

My workaround currently:
Convert the PDF to .docx with Adobe PDF (far superior than other PDF readers in terms of copying and pasting PDF) and appending the "Present" in myself before printing it out or converting it back to PDF.

[aloisdg]

Mmm, I've been following this problem for about five months now and there hasn't been any resolution yet.

Feel free to provide arguments to unlock the situation or a better solution directly. If you have time and motivation to help, it is more than welcome.

[thomasdavis]

My vote is for option 2)

Taking types into consideration, an empty string would represent something else. (terrible explanation)

null is less verbose because we wouldn't need to repeat redundant properties in each section.

What is the official majority vote at this point, we can probably merge something in.

[mudassir0909]

I'm with null for representing "present work". And it's upto the themes to ensure they render "Present", "Current" or whatever the label when they encounter null in the endDate.

[aloisdg]

Before arguing about a solution, please read #198 too.

[alienkidmj12]

how do we input job history, if i have more than 1 job in there it reports that the current job doesnt have an end date :(

[noraj]

Tomorrow we will be in 2019 and we still can't represent a current job.

[j-ecker]

We are currently in 2019, has there been any resolution to this?

[nrgapple]

has anyone made a fork with present integrated?

[evanplaice]

A current|present value could be represented by an empty string. For that change to take place #348 will have to be approved and merged first.

[Velua]

What happened with this?

[thomasdavis]

Most themes have implemented that an endDate with the value null or simply missing means that you are still at the job.

[danguilherme]

Most themes have implemented that an endDate with the value null or simply missing means that you are still at the job.

Should the schema change? The latest one doesn't allow an empty string or null as value.

[thomasdavis]

Yeah we should let it be set explicitly to null going fourth.