I normally send my CV to people in PDF format. But yesterday I got an 
email saying

   "Hi, I'm having trouble reading your CV. Could you send it to me 
again in Word format?"

I have to wonder at the person who doesn't have the free, cross-platform 
Acrobat Reader software [or Ghost View, or one of the bazillion other 
open-source PDF viewer programs], but /does/ have the extremely 
expensive Microsoft Word software which only runs on the extremely 
expensive Microsoft Windows platform.

(Technically, they could be using Open Office, Libre Office or one of 
several other packages which understand MS Word documents - but then 
wouldn't they ask for ODF format or something?)

Now, I have seen a few recruiters claim that their system "can't accept" 
documents that aren't in MS Word format. Which seems reasonable enough; 
PDF contains enough information to render an image to paper, but doesn't 
contain any logical formatting formation. (E.g., you can't easily 
determine what's part of the document body and what's a page number. But 
in a Word document, this is trivial.) A Word document contains 
information about the logical structure of the information, which gives 
software a hope in hell of pulling something useful out of the text. 
Even so, I have to wonder what they're using this software to 
automate... It's, like, 2 pages of text! How hard can it be to process 
that by hand?

Post a reply to this message

> Now, I have seen a few recruiters claim that their system "can't accept"
> documents that aren't in MS Word format. Which seems reasonable enough;
> PDF contains enough information to render an image to paper, but doesn't
> contain any logical formatting formation. (E.g., you can't easily
> determine what's part of the document body and what's a page number. But
> in a Word document, this is trivial.) A Word document contains
> information about the logical structure of the information, which gives
> software a hope in hell of pulling something useful out of the text.
> Even so, I have to wonder what they're using this software to
> automate... It's, like, 2 pages of text! How hard can it be to process
> that by hand?

Maybe they're putting it into a neutral/common format before sending it 
to the company? I've seen that a few times. Another option is that their 
software picks out keywords from your CV to store in their database, so 
in the future they can match it up with jobs automatically.

Post a reply to this message

Le 12/09/2012 12:21, Orchid Win7 v1 a écrit :
> I normally send my CV to people in PDF format. But yesterday I got an
> email saying
> 
>   "Hi, I'm having trouble reading your CV. Could you send it to me again
> in Word format?"
> 
> I have to wonder at the person who doesn't have the free, cross-platform
> Acrobat Reader software [or Ghost View, or one of the bazillion other
> open-source PDF viewer programs], but /does/ have the extremely
> expensive Microsoft Word software which only runs on the extremely
> expensive Microsoft Windows platform.
> 
> (Technically, they could be using Open Office, Libre Office or one of
> several other packages which understand MS Word documents - but then
> wouldn't they ask for ODF format or something?)
> 
> Now, I have seen a few recruiters claim that their system "can't accept"
> documents that aren't in MS Word format. Which seems reasonable enough;
> PDF contains enough information to render an image to paper, but doesn't
> contain any logical formatting formation. (E.g., you can't easily
> determine what's part of the document body and what's a page number. But
> in a Word document, this is trivial.) A Word document contains
> information about the logical structure of the information, which gives
> software a hope in hell of pulling something useful out of the text.
> Even so, I have to wonder what they're using this software to
> automate... It's, like, 2 pages of text! How hard can it be to process
> that by hand?


The reality is harder: they will take your CV, edit it to add the
required functionality needed by their customer and submit it.
If it raises interest, they will set up a meeting for your recruitment.
The most honest (...) will at least told you 3 minutes before the
meeting with the customer to acknolegde even if you do not understand
("do not say no to the customer, we will deal with it later if it
works"): so yes, you did not know, but you have an first hand experience
of lunar gravity.

That's why they want/need it in Word format.
If you go that way (your choice), I recommend bringing a printed CV at
any meeting.

Post a reply to this message

> The reality is harder: they will take your CV, edit it to add the
> required functionality needed by their customer and submit it.
> If it raises interest, they will set up a meeting for your recruitment.
> The most honest (...) will at least told you 3 minutes before the
> meeting with the customer to acknolegde even if you do not understand
> ("do not say no to the customer, we will deal with it later if it
> works"): so yes, you did not know, but you have an first hand experience
> of lunar gravity.

You can use this to your advantage though, the recruiter likely has a 
much better idea of what the company is looking for so can help you out 
to tailor your CV for that company. When I got my current job the 
recruiter called me after seeing my CV and we spent about an hour 
talking about what I'd done in my previous job and which bits he thought 
I should really mention on the CV. I got more information from him about 
the job than I could have ever got from an advert on a website.

Post a reply to this message

On 12/09/2012 11:51 AM, scott wrote:
> Maybe they're putting it into a neutral/common format before sending it
> to the company? I've seen that a few times.

Which is amusing, because PDF is a "neutral/common format", while MS 
Word is a closed, proprietary format. You would /think/ it should be the 
other way around...

> Another option is that their
> software picks out keywords from your CV to store in their database, so
> in the future they can match it up with jobs automatically.

Perhaps. Although it's pretty trivial to find keywords in a PDF file 
too. [Which doesn't mean that their software /implements/ such a 
capability...]

My best guess is that most computer lusers are so stupid that MS Word is 
the only document format that they know exists, so recruiters just cater 
to that.

(How many times have you had people email you a photograph as a Word 
document?)

Post a reply to this message

why don't you send them the source code of a haskell program of your authoring
that prints your CV in whatever funky format they need, a short readme.txt and a
copy of ghc so that they compile and wonder at your coding skills?

Post a reply to this message

>> Maybe they're putting it into a neutral/common format before sending it
>> to the company? I've seen that a few times.
>
> Which is amusing, because PDF is a "neutral/common format", while MS
> Word is a closed, proprietary format. You would /think/ it should be the
> other way around...

I meant format as in the layout/font etc, not the file format. In order 
to change that it's easier to start with Word rather than a PDF. The 
same way some companies want you to fill in all your details on a 
website rather than post a CV, it just makes it easier for them to 
process all the applications when all the answers are the same boxes.

Post a reply to this message

> My best guess is that most computer lusers are so stupid that MS Word is
> the only document format that they know exists, so recruiters just cater
> to that.
>

You are an IT geek.  They are recruiters.  You know and understand 
computers.  They know and understand HR concepts.  Just because they 
don't share your deep understanding of computers doesn't mean they're 
stupid.  Just like the fact that you don't understand the first thing 
about going on an interview or selling yourself means you're stupid.

It would really do you a ton of good to stop using hyperbole and to try 
to view the world with an open mind, and not have so many preconceived 
notions about it.

-- 
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/*    flabreque    */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/*        @        */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }

Post a reply to this message

Le 12/09/2012 13:25, scott a écrit :
>> The reality is harder: they will take your CV, edit it to add the
>> required functionality needed by their customer and submit it.
>> If it raises interest, they will set up a meeting for your recruitment.
>> The most honest (...) will at least told you 3 minutes before the
>> meeting with the customer to acknolegde even if you do not understand
>> ("do not say no to the customer, we will deal with it later if it
>> works"): so yes, you did not know, but you have an first hand experience
>> of lunar gravity.
> 
> You can use this to your advantage though, the recruiter likely has a
> much better idea of what the company is looking for so can help you out
> to tailor your CV for that company. When I got my current job the
> recruiter called me after seeing my CV and we spent about an hour
> talking about what I'd done in my previous job and which bits he thought
> I should really mention on the CV. I got more information from him about
> the job than I could have ever got from an advert on a website.
> 

You were lucky, or the IT industry-RH changed to better practices a lot
from 17 years ago.
I never got feedback about good focus on CV for a customer by that time,
but many liars, yes, and from different companies, big & small.

Post a reply to this message

> You were lucky, or the IT industry-RH changed to better practices a lot
> from 17 years ago.
> I never got feedback about good focus on CV for a customer by that time,
> but many liars, yes, and from different companies, big & small.

Maybe, but it makes sense from the recruiters point of view, he only 
gets paid when the company employees someone, the sooner that happens 
the less work he needs to do for the same payment.

Post a reply to this message