Why does nobody talk about how bad some of those online resume builders are?

I paid $80 for a fancy resume service last fall because I wanted to stand out. They gave me a slick looking template but the file format was weird and most job sites couldn't read it properly. I ended up having to copy everything into a simple Word doc anyway, which took me a whole afternoon. Has anyone found a good, cheap way to make a resume that actually works with those online application systems?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_drew2mo ago

Resume systems mashing text together into unreadable blocks" feels like the kind of problem that sounds worse than it actually is. I've submitted dozens of messy resumes over the years and somehow still got callbacks even when my formatting looked like a toddler arranged it. Maybe we overthink this stuff way more than the people reading these things do.

hayden_rivera2mo ago

Yeah I saw a thing that said a lot of those systems just scan for plain text. So all the fancy boxes and columns just mess it up. I just use Google Docs now and save it as a PDF.

shanegibson2mo ago

Actually a lot of the newer systems can read basic formatting now, like simple tables from Word. The real problem is with complex graphic design elements. I used columns in a resume once and the system mashed the text together into one unreadable block. Plain text is still the safest bet for sure.