Yeah, another comment (now dead) asks what you do when someone asks for a Word format version.
My CV (I think that's what you're all talking about - took a little while to work out you weren't actually resuming anything) is in LaTeX format. Places regularly got confused with being sent a PDF, and demanded Word instead, so I would just convert each page to a bitmap and load into a Word document as an image. Inelegant, but functional.
Back in the days when I was applying via job agencies, I even had one complain that there was something "wrong" with my Word document, as they couldn't work out how to edit any of it. I told them I thought that was a feature, not a bug.
I don't think I've ever had a place ask me for my resume in word format. The closest is a Microsoft interview where they sent me some forms in docx format that I had to send back filled in.
Also you can do some basic conversion from Tex to word using pandoc http://pandoc.org/
I've had a recruiter ask for a Word version of my CV so that he could make minor edits to it for each relevant position, which makes sense. Otherwise, I don't think there's an excuse for not accepting a PDF.
My previous position I got through a recruiter. Demanded my resume in a Word, which ended up being a butchered and ugly version of my beautiful LaTeX-generated PDF. I understood that he was going to make a few edits, but about a year later I was going through some documents and managed to find the copy of the Word resume that he had made changes to. DRASTIC changes.
He had completely re-written huge chunks of my previous experience, changed the order of things to make me look like I had experience in areas that I definitely did not, and countless other minor changes. I couldn't believe it. His native language was definitely not English, so all of his changes had horrible spelling and grammar mistakes peppered in.
In the end I got the job, but only one other person had applied besides myself and the government agency the job was for desperately needed a body to fill a seat so I was kind of hired by default. Ended up being a crazy mess of a programming shop that I brought a bit of order to before leaving.
Be wary of those "minor edits": one recruiter took it upon themselves to add to my CV the "fact" that I was an experienced Java programmer (I'm not a programmer of any sort, at least not professionally).
CVs that I've been sent recently by recruitment agencies have been heavily edited to remove any direct contact details then add their own company headers to it anyway. I assume that's why they want it in word format.
Even if you make sure your CV is a work of art, there's no guarantee it's going to be received in that state.
Yeah, the majority of the places I apply to require word format I assume because they use some kind of proprietary scanning tool that can only read word documents. Who knows.
I usually keep mine in straight .txt format. If that doesn't work, I move on. I've usually investigated a number of places I might consider working and things like this help me narrow it down further.
Well, if you're applying to a position with the HR department, I guess you wouldn't.
For the vast majority of people posting here, we're working in departments that have nothing to do with HR, and HR's ability to read PDF files has no bearing on our (potential) boss's ability to read PDF files.
Hum, that's probably true, however stupid HR departments correlate very well with places that will soon turn into a hell to work in. (Unless they are powerless to decide who gets into - but then the CV wouldn't be a problem.)
If one can choose, I guess that is one of the most important signals.
My CV (I think that's what you're all talking about - took a little while to work out you weren't actually resuming anything) is in LaTeX format. Places regularly got confused with being sent a PDF, and demanded Word instead, so I would just convert each page to a bitmap and load into a Word document as an image. Inelegant, but functional.
Back in the days when I was applying via job agencies, I even had one complain that there was something "wrong" with my Word document, as they couldn't work out how to edit any of it. I told them I thought that was a feature, not a bug.