I was sending my resume as a Word doc for years until a recruiter in Denver told me why that's a problem.

She emailed me back and said the formatting always gets messed up in their system and to always send a PDF. I had no idea. Now I convert every file before I hit send. Anyone else get this tip late in the game?

3 comments

3 Comments

riley_price2mo ago

Wait, you were sending Word docs for years? That's wild to me (and honestly a little scary). I got that advice from a professor in my very first college career class, so I just assumed it was common knowledge. It makes total sense though, because everyone's version of Word is different.

abby3082mo ago

A professor told you that in a class? They actually taught something useful? Mine just talked about the history of paper sizes for an hour. I had to learn the hard way after my resume formatting exploded on a recruiter's screen. It looked like a word art disaster.

casey3931mo ago

Word art disaster" - oh man, that's exactly what mine looked like. I sent a doc to a hiring manager and she emailed back asking if my resume was an abstract painting. Turns out my fancy font choices turned into Wingdings on her end. So not only did I look unprofessional, I also looked like I was speaking in ancient runes or something.