Reply to: Is your CV PDF or word?

[m0n1k3r]

Nope, quite the opposite - I went through a phase of PDF, but noticed a distinct downturn in proactive contact. Switched back to Word and I started getting calls again - no doubt due to issues with their crap systems

There are online services, and software, that create designed CVs and output them in a bastard PDF format that is entirely unreadable to ATS's and unsearchable. They also tend to crash Acrobat. Word CVs are a much safer bet if you want to be found.

[MyUserName]

Word doc but I have a PDF versions because some stupid web portals that companies have do not accept word docs.

[courtg9000]

I heard somewhere that a 3 slide powerpoint was a new fangled thing for Cv's!

[sadkingbilly]

i leave mine on microfilm at a pre-arranged drop

[simes]

I convey my CV through the medium of interpretive dance. But special requests can also see it being sent in Word.

Never been asked for PDF.

[PCTNN]

pdf used by default but I have it in word if recruiters ask for it

[BlasterBates]

I just submitted mine as rtf format. I think this just the recruiter.

[vwdan]

Nope, quite the opposite - I went through a phase of PDF, but noticed a distinct downturn in proactive contact. Switched back to Word and I started getting calls again - no doubt due to issues with their crap systems

[PerfectStorm]

Never heard of anyone asking for PDF. I've heard of agents asking for word only because they can copy and past in to their format.

Translation: and remove the bit with your phone number and email address

[m0n1k3r]

Never heard of anyone asking for PDF. I've heard of agents asking for word only because they can copy and past in to their format.

You can copy and paste well from PDFs these days.

The reason is that Word documents work much better with applicant tracking systems. There are systems that create CVs as nicely designed PDFs, but the code in them is extremely complex and unparseable by the ATS, so they become invisible to the system. Some even crash Preview on Macs and make Acrobat go extremely slow.

[ladymuck]

I have seen some 'creative' layouts so I guess that's where the formatting goes awry, leading to a requirement for a PDF format

[Ketto]

I provide in PDF to avoid Word formatting aggro, but agents submitting the CV for a role more often than not ask for a Word version.

[sreed]

When I used to recruit people in a previous role, I always preferred pdf CVs to Word because often the Word ones would show on my screen formatted weirdly or in a way that clearly wasn't intended by the sender ultimately making it a pain in the arse to decipher, especially when you had a lot of CVs to go through. Not all word CVs, but a significant enough proportion that I distinctly remember it. Never had these issues with PDFs.

That could be a reason perhaps?

For me personally, I store my CV in word format. When I need to send it, I make any necessary tweaks, save it as a pdf and then and send it across.

[davetza]

You can easily convert word into PDF yourself.

It is also very easy to convert PDF into Word. Especially for a document that was created in Word in the first place.

[Lance]

You can easily convert word into PDF yourself.

I don't think the issue is whether it's easy. The issue is why would anyone stipulate such a constraint?