So someone sent a resume into the company I work for today

[AreaCode707]

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: AreaCode707
As a former recruiter:
- NEVER send PDF. It can't be added to/searched in most applicant tracking systems because their use of OCR technology is nil. You will get overlooked for jobs you are qualified for.
- Always make sure your resume looks ok in plain text; most ATS will strip the formatting. Don't necessarily write it in Notepad, but always check it in notepad. If your resume format is too garbled to read, you shot your chances.
- IF possible send/attach a nicely formatted Word version. Check your formatting; if you've used spaces instead of tabs, etc. you tipped off the recruiter that you don't know how to use your tools properly.

Except some editors will format tabs differently, so you might not get the look you are going for. Spaces will always be consistent.

Fair enough. Every resume I've ever received with space formatting seemed to be done because the user wasn't familiar with Word and/or just generally didn't do a good job, indicated by the lack of attention to detail (unaligned indents, no spell check, inconsistent use of fonts, etc.) So you're right; it can be a tip off but isn't the be-all, end-all of weeding out applicants.

 

[Bulk Beef]

Lessons learned from this thread thus far:

1. Send a PDF.
2. Don't send a PDF.
3. Send two formats, .doc and .txt.
4. Sending more than one format makes you look like a tool.
5. Wear a suit to your interview.
6. Wear a thong to your interview.
7. Posting your annual salary on an internet forum is awesome.
8. Posting your annual salary on an internet forum makes you look like a tool.

This thread is ATOT approved. :thumbsup:

 

[nonameo]

I send out all my resumes in ODF format. It doesn't seem to be doing me any good though, as I haven't gotten any offers since I started looking 🙁

 

[oiprocs]

This is why I hand deliver my resumes with a pretty pink bow and a box of chocolates.

 

[sponge008]

If it was a tech-oriented job, the applicant was probably a super-hacker who typed it in a green-text-on-black terminal. He sent it in knowing that if the company was sane enough to focus on content over bells and whistles, he would definitely be hired and would want to work there; if the company rejected him for sending a .txt, that's his tipoff that the job is not for him.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: AreaCode707

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: AreaCode707
As a former recruiter:
- NEVER send PDF. It can't be added to/searched in most applicant tracking systems because their use of OCR technology is nil. You will get overlooked for jobs you are qualified for.
- Always make sure your resume looks ok in plain text; most ATS will strip the formatting. Don't necessarily write it in Notepad, but always check it in notepad. If your resume format is too garbled to read, you shot your chances.
- IF possible send/attach a nicely formatted Word version. Check your formatting; if you've used spaces instead of tabs, etc. you tipped off the recruiter that you don't know how to use your tools properly.

Except some editors will format tabs differently, so you might not get the look you are going for. Spaces will always be consistent.

Fair enough. Every resume I've ever received with space formatting seemed to be done because the user wasn't familiar with Word and/or just generally didn't do a good job, indicated by the lack of attention to detail (unaligned indents, no spell check, inconsistent use of fonts, etc.) So you're right; it can be a tip off but isn't the be-all, end-all of weeding out applicants.

Ideally, you'd format a resume in Word with styles to ensure that everything has the proper indent built in. Or at the very least, just apply the indent to the text directly. Same goes with all other formatting.

The fact remains, though, that the only way you can be sure that someone on the other end will see the same thing you see is to send a PDF. I used to own a Mac and sometimes there would be differences between the file as it appeared on my Mac and as it appeared in Word on Windows. Not to mention the dumb little squiggly lines and (possible) formatting marks all over the place if the person has those turned on.

With plain text, you still can't be sure it'll look right. If they open it in Notepad, the text won't necessarily wrap in the right spots. RTF is nice because you can apply some basic styles and have it wrap to a page and not the window size, but a lot of people don't know what RTF is. It just seems PDF is the best possible format because (if you have a PDF reader, and virtually everyone does), you can be sure that it's always the same no matter how many times you move it around. There's a reason it's called "portable document format."

But that's just in a perfect world. I guess if you have to make sure their software can interface with it, a plain text file is the way to go. But I'd definitely include both in that case. And obviously you have to consider what they say on their application website.

 

[brxndxn]

Originally posted by: Bulk Beef
Lessons learned from this thread thus far:

1. Send a PDF.
2. Don't send a PDF.
3. Send two formats, .doc and .txt.
4. Sending more than one format makes you look like a tool.
5. Wear a suit to your interview.
6. Wear a thong to your interview.
7. Posting your annual salary on an internet forum is awesome.
8. Posting your annual salary on an internet forum makes you look like a tool.

This thread is ATOT approved. :thumbsup:

win

 

[krylon]

Originally posted by: sponge008
If it was a tech-oriented job, the applicant was probably a super-hacker who typed it in a green-text-on-black terminal. He sent it in knowing that if the company was sane enough to focus on content over bells and whistles, he would definitely be hired and would want to work there; if the company rejected him for sending a .txt, that's his tipoff that the job is not for him.

If he was a super hacker, he would have put himself on the payroll without being hired.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: PingSpike
All of your points apply to txt format. In fact, text format is more common and compatible then PDF.

PDF is the answer to this question that no one asked: How can we make text files take up more space and remove or hinder the ability to edit or search them on a computer. It'll be like paper except worse because you'll need a PC and probably bloated software to look at it.

I stopped hating PDF as much when I started using a different PDF client (I use SumatraPDF)

I use foxit, and yeah...it took a lot of the rage away. That said, I still don't see a lot of point in the format. It has successfully become a standard proprietary format second only MS word though.

 

[soydios]

3 formats:
- plain text for data entry to copy/paste into an internal database without all the annoying MSWord formatting
- pdf for exact unmodified professional replica
- .doc for easy workflow

 

[acheron]

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: PingSpike
All of your points apply to txt format. In fact, text format is more common and compatible then PDF.

PDF is the answer to this question that no one asked: How can we make text files take up more space and remove or hinder the ability to edit or search them on a computer. It'll be like paper except worse because you'll need a PC and probably bloated software to look at it.

I stopped hating PDF as much when I started using a different PDF client (I use SumatraPDF)

I use foxit, and yeah...it took a lot of the rage away. That said, I still don't see a lot of point in the format. It has successfully become a standard proprietary format second only MS word though.

I don't think that word means what you think it means.

 

[dquan97]

I'll just send a rar file w/ files in txt, doc, and pdf...as well as a rootkit trojan 😉

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: Aberforth
They cannot be edited without an editor, we often try to add our own little notes to the documents for the post-interview selection meetings :laugh:

+1

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: AreaCode707

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: AreaCode707
As a former recruiter:
- NEVER send PDF. It can't be added to/searched in most applicant tracking systems because their use of OCR technology is nil. You will get overlooked for jobs you are qualified for.
- Always make sure your resume looks ok in plain text; most ATS will strip the formatting. Don't necessarily write it in Notepad, but always check it in notepad. If your resume format is too garbled to read, you shot your chances.
- IF possible send/attach a nicely formatted Word version. Check your formatting; if you've used spaces instead of tabs, etc. you tipped off the recruiter that you don't know how to use your tools properly.

Except some editors will format tabs differently, so you might not get the look you are going for. Spaces will always be consistent.

Fair enough. Every resume I've ever received with space formatting seemed to be done because the user wasn't familiar with Word and/or just generally didn't do a good job, indicated by the lack of attention to detail (unaligned indents, no spell check, inconsistent use of fonts, etc.) So you're right; it can be a tip off but isn't the be-all, end-all of weeding out applicants.

Would you believe that in the last four years, in two different jobs, I had to generate exactly one document with MS Word?

 

[Ballatician]

Originally posted by: xcript

Originally posted by: Soundmanred
I always hand write my resume, then scan it, then use text recognition to convert it to type. I then print it out, read it out loud to my speech recognition software, print that out, scan it again, convert it to .PDF, then take a picture of the screen using my 1.2 MP digital camera. I transfer the picture to the computer, convert it to an 8 bit greyscale .BMP and scale it to 240x360.
I have received no offers of employment as of yet.

:laugh:

LOL - seriously

I am considering finally having something in my sig due to this posts hilarity.

 

[invidia]

LANL and NSA only accepts .txt files for their positions. This includes even the technical jobs.

 

[Saga]

Originally posted by: invidia
LANL and NSA only accepts .txt files for their positions. This includes even the technical jobs.

Further proof the OP is a douchebag.

 

[AreaCode707]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: AreaCode707

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: AreaCode707
As a former recruiter:
- NEVER send PDF. It can't be added to/searched in most applicant tracking systems because their use of OCR technology is nil. You will get overlooked for jobs you are qualified for.
- Always make sure your resume looks ok in plain text; most ATS will strip the formatting. Don't necessarily write it in Notepad, but always check it in notepad. If your resume format is too garbled to read, you shot your chances.
- IF possible send/attach a nicely formatted Word version. Check your formatting; if you've used spaces instead of tabs, etc. you tipped off the recruiter that you don't know how to use your tools properly.

Except some editors will format tabs differently, so you might not get the look you are going for. Spaces will always be consistent.

Fair enough. Every resume I've ever received with space formatting seemed to be done because the user wasn't familiar with Word and/or just generally didn't do a good job, indicated by the lack of attention to detail (unaligned indents, no spell check, inconsistent use of fonts, etc.) So you're right; it can be a tip off but isn't the be-all, end-all of weeding out applicants.

Would you believe that in the last four years, in two different jobs, I had to generate exactly one document with MS Word?

That's why a poorly-spelled email doesn't weed out a candidate for me either. The person may be the worst speller and worst spell-checker in the world but if they can write good code, so what?

 

[EMPshockwave82]

From reading this whole thing I have found out that some like PDF files and some do not. Some like .txt, some like .doc. some like .rtf and some do not.

Maybe you should all take a resume by it's merit instead of what it was composed in.

Until there is a standard or something that says "do not send xxx type of file" I will just have to send .pdf, .txt, .doc. and .rtf files with a notation that says "Unsure as to what type of file you're company requests a resume to be written in."

 

[Red Squirrel]

I usually send in pdf as it's cleaner then word. No red underlines (stuff that is not an actual spelling mistake obviously 😛) and other "Editor" artifacts.

Though, the PDF not being editable makes sense though. I don't know why, but PDF editors are retarded expensive and have restrictive licensing. It's not something you see massly rolled out across a whole company. If someone can figure out the PDF algorithm and make a free PDF editor, they'd be famous.

 

[sactoking]

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
I usually send in pdf as it's cleaner then word. No red underlines (stuff that is not an actual spelling mistake obviously 😛) and other "Editor" artifacts.

Though, the PDF not being editable makes sense though. I don't know why, but PDF editors are retarded expensive and have restrictive licensing. It's not something you see massly rolled out across a whole company. If someone can figure out the PDF algorithm and make a free PDF editor, they'd be famous.

Back in college a CSci friend (who's now at Cisco) told me how to make and modify PDF using a dedicated Print-to-file printer, Norton Ghost, and a few other readily downloadable programs. Alas, I do not remember how it worked.

 

[Imdmn04]

OP must not be very experienced in tech hiring, lots of corporate hiring websites will ask you to submit a pure text version of your resume.

Their program then scans for keywords, sometimes pdf, word, wordx, and other formats causes problems for the scanning software.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: Aberforth
I have nothing against pdf's 😀 ...and yes we don't print, each resume is like 50 pages- waste of ink if you ask me, especially when only 1 among 20 candidates is about to be selected, rest will go into the shredder.

That's not a resume, that's a space station!:shocked:



*technically a C.V.

Originally posted by: mugs

What he failed to mention is that his resume is a flipbook of two ninja stick figures fighting each other

:laugh:

If someone submitted a resume like that, I'd give them an interview, if only to see the freak show.

 

[nerp]

50+ page resumes? WTF? Unless you're required to submit an extensive portfolio of some sort, this is ridiculous. Oh, wait. Maybe you're 1,400 years old.

 

[nerp]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: AreaCode707

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: AreaCode707
As a former recruiter:
- NEVER send PDF. It can't be added to/searched in most applicant tracking systems because their use of OCR technology is nil. You will get overlooked for jobs you are qualified for.
- Always make sure your resume looks ok in plain text; most ATS will strip the formatting. Don't necessarily write it in Notepad, but always check it in notepad. If your resume format is too garbled to read, you shot your chances.
- IF possible send/attach a nicely formatted Word version. Check your formatting; if you've used spaces instead of tabs, etc. you tipped off the recruiter that you don't know how to use your tools properly.

Except some editors will format tabs differently, so you might not get the look you are going for. Spaces will always be consistent.

Fair enough. Every resume I've ever received with space formatting seemed to be done because the user wasn't familiar with Word and/or just generally didn't do a good job, indicated by the lack of attention to detail (unaligned indents, no spell check, inconsistent use of fonts, etc.) So you're right; it can be a tip off but isn't the be-all, end-all of weeding out applicants.

Would you believe that in the last four years, in two different jobs, I had to generate exactly one document with MS Word?

Haha. Wow. I've created 6,026 in the same period, to represent the other end of the spectrum. I learned years ago to sort by week then year. 5 folders with 52 folders in each is a lot easier than spiderwebs and Zork mazes filled with forests of blue W.