Decreasing vertical space before start of itemize in Resume.cls

Question

I am using the resume.cls from this template: https://www.overleaf.com/articles/sharanya-anands-cv/fyvvdpdxthyc

I want to decrease the vertical spacing before the start of each list, but have consulted numerous Stack Exchange threads whose solutions do not seem to work in this case.

Here is a snippet of the code that I am using:

\documentclass{resume} % Use the custom resume.cls style

\usepackage{fontawesome}
\usepackage[symbol]{footmisc}
\usepackage{hyperref}

\usepackage{newcent}

\usepackage[left=0.4 in,top=0.4in,right=0.4 in,bottom=0.4in, includefoot]{geometry} % Document margins
\newcommand{\tab}[1]{\hspace{.2667\textwidth}\rlap{#1}} 
\newcommand{\itab}[1]{\hspace{0em}\rlap{#1}}

%From previous Stack Exchange threads
\usepackage{enumitem}
\setlist[itemize]{topsep=0pt}

\begin{document}

\begin{rSection}{Sample}

blah blah blah
\begin{itemize} \itemsep -0.5em
    \item first item
    \item second item
\end{itemize}

\end{rSection}

\end{document}

Here is the output:

I would like the distance between the "blah blah blah" line to be decreased before the first item block.

I greatly appreciate any help you can provide in this process. Thank you!

Answer 1

To get a smaller space between the line before itemize and the first item of itemize you can use a negative value for topsep. An alternative would be to use \vspace{-5pt} before \begin{itemize} (see commented in following MWE).

Please see the following MWE:

\documentclass{resume} % Use the custom resume.cls style

\usepackage{fontawesome}
\usepackage[symbol]{footmisc}
\usepackage{hyperref}

\usepackage{newcent}

\usepackage[left=0.4 in,top=0.4in,right=0.4 in,bottom=0.4in, includefoot]{geometry} % Document margins
\newcommand{\tab}[1]{\hspace{.2667\textwidth}\rlap{#1}} 
\newcommand{\itab}[1]{\hspace{0em}\rlap{#1}}

%From previous Stack Exchange threads
\usepackage{enumitem}
\setlist[itemize]{topsep=-5pt}% <============================== 0pt --> -5pt

\begin{document}

\begin{rSection}{Sample}

blah blah blah
%\vspace{-5pt} % <================================== alternative to topsep=-5pt
\begin{itemize}[itemsep=-0.5em]
    \item first item
    \item second item
\end{itemize}

\end{rSection}

\end{document}

and its result:

Please play with the value -5pt for your needs ...