PDFs

If your organization is such a clusterfuck that you can't figure out how to open a PDF, then I'm going to consider that a bullet dodged.

I'm going to take a stab and say she's a recruiter for a third party staffing company.

They REQUIRE word docs so that they can copy and paste or edit your resume on their template.

Pro tip: take the requirements that they send you and Google search for it. Apply directly with the company and cut them out.

Well duh...PDF stands for "portable document file", not "readable document file".
You can send it, but no one can read it.

You should use readable text files (RTF) instead.

“Portable Document Format”. If they can’t open it, fuck them, you don’t want to work for that tire fire.

They want it as a word doc so they can edit it and fuck with it before passing it along.

If you are an HR manager and you're unable to open a PDF then you should first try and finish first grade high school before continuing your job.

How many great employees have YOU missed out on because you're so lacking in basic life skills that one wonders how you found the tit as a baby to nourish yourself...

Well, this is obviously ridiculous. If you want to maximise your chances, make it as easy as possible. Send an exe.

.txt file it is

I used to work IT at a school and reports were emailed to parents as PDFs.

We got a complaint from a few parents saying things like, why are the reports PDF? Not everyone has Acrobat Reader, you should be sending these out as Microsoft Word files.

I then had to tell them that unlike Microsoft Word, Acrobat Reader is free to download and install. Anyone can get Acrobat reader or another PDF viewer, but not everyone just has Word on their device nor are they willing to buy it.

I didn't mention the part about a Word file is easy to just edit.

I'm also going to assume that some of them are using a work laptop where they have Word installed and no admin rights to install a PDF viewer and too lazy to ask IT.

If you can't open 90% of pdfs sent from different sources then you're the problem

Sorry I can't see this picture, can you upload it as a word document please?

Can't open a PDF? Fine, here is a JPEG of my resume.

What the hell? Every bit of resume advice I've ever gotten has said to use PDF to protect from potential formatting errors due to display differences.

These people just want to remove your contact data so they can make money off your back.

Real recruiters find candidates and setup a meeting between you and the company. They also don't care about eventually sending your contact details as their services are actually worth giving them money.

Stupid recruiters that post on LinkedIn arguing about your resume like in the OP just edit your details out and send companies a handful of resumes. They make money from simply being a glorified proxy.

"Chief Candidate Whisperer", like what the actual fuck.

This is SovCit level.

I always think of the one green text where the first thing the person does when they get resumes is to throw the top half of the pile in the bin cause:

Can't have any unlucky people working here.

9/10 applicants who submit their resume as a PDF for our openings, we can't view.

Can't, or won't?

Are you fucking kidding me?

That's some of the stupidest shit I've ever heard... Hell, that would even be fucking stupid in 1998.

Most of the time, sentences in a sensible order, we reading easier can make.

Candidate hot tip - if you're going to learn English from a fictional green puppet, choose Kermit The Frog; he is a native English speaker.

Deleted

Definitive red flag if that is their supposed understanding of computers

Permanently Deleted

I've been in hiring discussions where word doc is looked down on since the candidate is not thinking about how to protect their data from manipulation.

This ladies take is dumb as hell, or as others have mentioned because her company changes applicants information.

I actually was going along with this for 2 split seconds.

"Wait. WAIT! Is she serious?!"

Translation: i can't insert a pdf into whatever bullshit system i'm using to thoughtlessly eliminate people

how many opportunities have you missed

Maybe they should be asking themselves the same questions if they are just ignoring most of the candidates because they are too lazy to get a pdf reader. I'm sure they aren't getting the best people with that approach.

The problem is they expect everyone to jump through hoops for them as if all the candidates are the same and they just need to pick one.

Reminds me of that greentext about an IT guy for a big business who has absolutely no idea what he's doing and just keeps telling people over the phone to install Adobe Acrobat, about 2 or 3 times a day at most, and 98% of the time it works.

Wait, they freely admit that they are incapable of opening 90% of applicants documentation?

Apparently it's because a lot of agencies use software that automatically scrapes résumés for keywords that match job descriptions and they don't work very well with PDFs.

This isn't a PEBCAK error for once, and that's very surprising because I've learned the hard way that your average recruiter is a professional spammer that will flood your inbox with shitty roles whilst lacking the mental capacity to understand that entry level doesn't mean 5+ years of experience.

looks like that company seriously suffers a huge lack of experts, maybe if you didnt get an answer, just resend your application as a word document with your salary expectation just "tripled" for ... compensation purposes. whatever company still "depends" on microsoft still has heaps extra money it can easily divert to you without any real loss, so don't waste that chance!

Lms "we are incompetent"

She is trolling applicants as hard as she can

This has got to be a shit post or engagement bait...

chief candidate whisperer

are they looking to hire a horse?

Actually this is good advice. Nowadays nobody reads your CV in the first step. Your CV first gets through an automated system (ATS i think its called). It's designed to filter out as much as possible.

The problem with PDF is that it's terrible to parse cuz it's designed for humans reading it, not machines. The only reliable way to parse it is by converting it to images and then OCR, which is kinda expensive.

So before you send a PDF, you should first try to convert it to txt and see if the content make enough sense. Or just use word to make a CV then export to PDF.

When i was looking for a job, i remember there was a website that would give you tips on your CV and they had an ATS report of your CV. I was so shocked to realize that ATS totally messed up completely to parse the correct info from my latex CV. Like I have a lot of AI/ML experience and it completely missed it and thought i had quality assurance one. And i was applying for AI jobs, no wonder I couldn't get any interviews. Then I changed it to word and an exported pdf where word wasn't accepted. I got many more interviews after that.

Alternative suggestion: spray paint your resume on the outside wall of the offices of whatever company you are trying to apply at. Bonus points if you manage an approximate rendition of Comic Sans throughout.

Alternative explanation for why your resume was not read: https://lemmy.world/post/20282317

Deleted

She doesn't know that Word can open PDFs

Learn how to do your job you lollipop.

what's a pdf?

“Most of the time, we meaning” reads like the most awkward attempt at using Aftican-American Vernacular ever.

Pdf files are a prime vector for malware. One of the most reliable ways to get a virus in a system seems to be sending a gimmicked pdf and social engineer it so it's opened.

I've always kinda wondered how recruiters computers aren't swimming in malware.