CV File Format

[Hicks]

Some very valid points.

Thanks to all.

[TheVoice]

I've done alot of work in the creative industries & don't like folks messing too much with my CV - so PDFs are good because you can enforce formatting up to a point.

Any decent agency will be storing your CV in their own database, which if it's something like TriSys will auto-rec from PDFs.

Granted, you can copy & paste from a PDF (but if you really dont trust the pimps, you can prevent this!) but then formatting becomes their responsibility & puts less burden on you from a creative perspective. If you really trust them, you could send them the Word version but then you have a little less control.

In my view, agencies are going to have to get up to speed with accepting PDFs as with the differing file formats between Office up to 2003, the new 2007 .***x formats & Openoffice - their (mostly outsourced!) IT people are going to have trouble keeping up with installing filters - it's really easy to do an Acrobat install though

Just my 2p

[Not So Wise]

RTF, solves all the faffing

[ratewhore]

They get a PDF. Never had any problems yet.

[TheFaQQer]

They get a PDF. Never had any problems yet.

Have you tried sending them a PDF that you can't copy the text out of?

If you include your contact details and send it like that, EBs don't like it much.

[NickFitz]

I've had that and I think it can sometimes be a text box issue. ISTR a while back getting loads of kick backs on my cv because there was a text box in it that some virus guard program or other was flagging as potentially malicious.

RTF, solves all the faffing

Yup, RTF - it's a standard Word format so no compatibility issues, but it can't contain any of the macros that anti-virus stuff gets upset about.

However I once had a pimp phone me to complain that they needed "a Word file", meaning one with a ".doc" extension. I told them the ".rtf" file would open in Word, but they refused to even try, just saying again that they could only handle ".doc".

So I renamed the file to have a ".doc" extension (Word isn't bothered if it's actually an RTF) and sent them that. They phoned me back to thank me...

Bozos

[Sir_Edward_Matheson]

Yup, RTF - it's a standard Word format so no compatibility issues, but it can't contain any of the macros that anti-virus stuff gets upset about.

However I once had a pimp phone me to complain that they needed "a Word file", meaning one with a ".doc" extension. I told them the ".rtf" file would open in Word, but they refused to even try, just saying again that they could only handle ".doc".

So I renamed the file to have a ".doc" extension (Word isn't bothered if it's actually an RTF) and sent them that. They phoned me back to thank me...

Bozos

My CV is in RTF but the filename has a .doc extension.

[VectraMan]

So what do we think in 2015?

I have an aged copy of Word 2003, which is what I've used before, but as I'm redoing it again I'm thinking I'd rather use Libre Office. Or is that just asking for problems?

[unixman]

After searching the internet for CV's in my field to get an idea of style, formatting etc.

You sneaky basket.

I store/edit mine in .ods, send it out in .doc. Agencies have never heard of OpenOffice/Libre.

[CloudWalker]

It depends on how trendy your C.V is.
Some people are doing the Tube Map C.V Style which works great on a pdf