2 ms·

What document format for resumes do you (demand) from potential employees?

1 points by joubert 18y ago

It seems to me one should accept formats such as PDF, HTML, text, RTF, etc. but not word processer-specific formats. Yes, no?

sjs382 18y ago
It's all PDF, Doc or plain text from my experience. Would be cool to see more requests for HTML resumes so markup-obsessive web developers could use microformats, etc.
ggruschow 18y ago
If you expect decent computer skills, and you're just having humans read them, you shouldn't need to specify. If the candidate can't figure out to send you something you can be reasonably expected to read (sorry, MS Word.doc is included, but .docx isn't), that's good enough reason to disqualify them (from all directions - .docx, TeX, etc). If they're good enough that you'd ignore that, you probably don't need the resume anyway.
fak3r 18y ago
The problem is most of the people that filter through the resumes are HR folks, in one case I heard of one dropping a resume because the IT candidate didnt' have "TCP/IP experience" on their resume, so the format matters less than the content in this case. Still, .doc is the standard, I write mine in Open Office, but test it in MS Office since that's what they'll open it with. I always have a PDF on hand as well, but when you're searching for a job you don't want to be the one sub'ing a resume in a format they're not expecting. Of course when I review resumes I prefer text, with extra credit if it was written with vi!
- gaius 18y ago
  The reason many recruiters want .doc is so they can "reformat" it into the "house style". The CV you see may not much resemble what they wrote! Ultimately the only solution to the HR problem is for the technical staff to do the entire screening process, but that won't happen (in large companies anyway) as why should the technical people be recruited differently to the marketing folks? What are they SPECIAL or something? Well, exactly.
answerly 18y ago
Plain text in the body of an email is my preference since it makes the content easily searchable in my inbox.

1 points by joubert 18y ago

It seems to me one should accept formats such as PDF, HTML, text, RTF, etc. but not word processer-specific formats. Yes, no?

sjs382 18y ago

It's all PDF, Doc or plain text from my experience. Would be cool to see more requests for HTML resumes so markup-obsessive web developers could use microformats, etc.

ggruschow 18y ago

If you expect decent computer skills, and you're just having humans read them, you shouldn't need to specify. If the candidate can't figure out to send you something you can be reasonably expected to read (sorry, MS Word.doc is included, but .docx isn't), that's good enough reason to disqualify them (from all directions - .docx, TeX, etc). If they're good enough that you'd ignore that, you probably don't need the resume anyway.

fak3r 18y ago

The problem is most of the people that filter through the resumes are HR folks, in one case I heard of one dropping a resume because the IT candidate didnt' have "TCP/IP experience" on their resume, so the format matters less than the content in this case. Still, .doc is the standard, I write mine in Open Office, but test it in MS Office since that's what they'll open it with. I always have a PDF on hand as well, but when you're searching for a job you don't want to be the one sub'ing a resume in a format they're not expecting. Of course when I review resumes I prefer text, with extra credit if it was written with vi!

gaius 18y ago
The reason many recruiters want .doc is so they can "reformat" it into the "house style". The CV you see may not much resemble what they wrote! Ultimately the only solution to the HR problem is for the technical staff to do the entire screening process, but that won't happen (in large companies anyway) as why should the technical people be recruited differently to the marketing folks? What are they SPECIAL or something? Well, exactly.

answerly 18y ago

Plain text in the body of an email is my preference since it makes the content easily searchable in my inbox.