For the past few years, I've been a senior engineer involved in hiring. I've reviewed over a thousand CVs in that time.
Here's what kept bothering me: less than 10% looked professionally typeset. The rest were thrown together in Word with goofy fonts, jarring colors, poor spacing. Most were clearly generic templates sent to dozens of companies with zero personalization.
The uncomfortable part? The best candidate might have been in that pile I filtered out in 15 seconds. Someone with exactly the skills we needed, but their CV looked sloppy so it never got a real look.
If you've been qualified for a role and never heard back, this might be why.
That First Glance Is Everything
Think I'm exaggerating about 15 seconds? A study tracking 114 recruiters found they spent just 17 to 46 seconds per CV on average. The shortest? 12 seconds.
When I was screening, that first glance determined everything:
- Does this look professional?
- Is this person detail-oriented?
- Did they even try?
A well-typeset CV answers all three immediately. A sloppy one... doesn't get a second look.
Why I Built This
I ran into this problem myself when I needed to manage different versions of my CV for different applications. I tried the existing CV builders.
Most are obsessed with flashy colors and "creative" templates. They're building party invitations, not professional documents.
LaTeX and Typst exist for a reason. Decades of scientific publishing have proven they produce beautiful, precise typography. Every time someone applied with a LaTeX CV, I noticed; not because it was flashy, but because it was elegant.
But LaTeX has a learning curve most people won't climb. So they use Word, and their CVs look... not great.
The AI Problem
Then there's the "AI" features every builder claims to have.
They're frustratingly blunt instruments. Kickresume only lets you rewrite entire sections. Rezi only rewrites whole bullets. You want to improve one phrase that feels off? Too bad: it rewrites everything or nothing.
That's not AI helping. That's AI taking control away from you.
And they don't give you any control over how to rewrite. You can't provide specific feedback such as length and tone. You get what the model spits out.
The JobSprout dashboard - clean, focused, and professional
What I Built Instead
JobSprout uses Typst for professional typesetting with zero learning curve. Your CV gets perfect spacing, professional typography, and ATS-friendly layouts.
The AI understands context: your role, your industry, what you're applying for. But here's the difference: it's surgical.
Select a word, a phrase, or a section, you choose what needs help. The AI gives targeted suggestions you can accept, reject, or modify.
And you control HOW it rewrites: adjust the length, change the tone, make it more technical or more approachable. It's your voice, your way.
You stay in control.
Real-time editing with professional Typst typesetting
The AI Assistant
Sometimes you don't want to select text and pick from a menu. You want to have a conversation.
JobSprout includes an AI Assistant that lives alongside your document. It knows your CV, your work history, and the role you're applying for. Ask it anything: "What could be stronger here?" or "How do I make this more relevant for a startup?"
Want something done? Just tell it. "Check my grammar." "Rewrite my summary to be more confident." "Make this cover letter shorter." It executes exactly what you ask, with full context about you and the application.
No more copying your CV into ChatGPT and explaining your situation every time. The assistant already knows.
Chat with AI that has full context about your CV and application
Pricing: Free to create and download. Want more AI credits and unlimited documents? $7/month (billed yearly) or $12/month. A fraction of what others charge. No export restrictions, no holding your CV hostage.
What I Learned Building This
There's a reason the established platforms don't use LaTeX or Typst.
There's no out-of-the-box support for this in the web. You need to get your hands dirty and build a system that compiles Typst in the browser and provides real-time updates.
It took me many iterations to get right, finally landing on something that works with a bit of help from this library.
The same goes for AI features.
Apps these days will slap "AI" in without a second thought. At JobSprout, AI is there to help, it's not a crutch. It's thoughtfully built as a tool at your disposal, which can be used surgically or as a complete rewrite, as you see fit.
The flashy features like adding colors and graphics are easy, and they draw you in.
But it's a trap. I discarded these as goals early on when I realized that a good CV is actually a boring-looking, professional, yet clean, sharp, and elegantly typeset document.
Nobody gets hired because their CV had a cool gradient. They get hired because their CV looked credible.
How It Works
- Real-time preview - See exactly what your CV will look like as you type
- Drag and drop - Reorder sections, toggle them on/off for different applications
- Import to start - Upload your existing CV and improve from there
- Unlimited downloads - Export as PDF whenever you need it
- CVs and cover letters - Create both from the same platform, with your data shared between them
- Multiple templates - Switch between professional layouts to find the right fit
What's Coming
The roadmap is driven by user feedback and feature requests. Some things I'm exploring:
- CV review - Get a scorecard of your CV and apply suggestions with a single click
- Job application tracking - Keep track of where you've applied and follow up at the right time
- AI interview prep - Practice with an AI interviewer tailored to your target role
- LinkedIn profile import - Pull your experience directly from LinkedIn
- LinkedIn profile optimization - Get suggestions to improve your LinkedIn presence
But right now the focus is on what's already built: helping you create professional CVs and cover letters that survive those brutal first 15 seconds.
Have a feature request? I'd love to hear it.
Try it: jobsprout.ai
Questions? Found a bug? Email me at david@jobsprout.ai or reach out on LinkedIn.