Why PDF will get you employed over MSWord

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 - CV format, CV Help, cv security, Employment, Job Advert, Job Application, Job Vacancies, recruiters, recruitment

Why PDF will get you employed over MSWord

Many job application systems these days are based online, and in the recruiter side of the employment business, technology has huge gains in efficiency and cost of operations.

But there is one simple technology choice you can make in your job application which will mean you get employed quicker.

That one choice is in choosing to send in your job application using Adobe PDF over Microsoft Word. Simply, it really is just using a proverbial spanner in the works to create a human conversation and interaction, but it creates quicker results – if you understand how the recruiter side of the business works

Recruitment Business

Recruiters make money when they place people with employers – it really is that simple a business. Some recruiters make money when they send a pile of CV/resumes to the employer, and submit further invoices when the employer tells them who they wish to interview. I hence keep saying to Job Seekers, that it is important to know how the recruiter you engage with is paid before you send them your CV/resume. Because if you don’t, you could just be a met target in terms of filling their database with a targeted set of skills, or you could just be one of those candidates making up the pile so that the preferred candidate gets a job.

However, it is what happens next to your CV/resume that makes PDF a better choice for employment over MSWord. What the recruiter wants to do is send a pile of CV/resumes – hopefully vetted, on the High Street probably not – to their client. As the recruiter gets paid on making a placement, the last thing they want is their client to do is make direct contact with you or any of the other people they send to them. So they want to remove your contact details: at minimum your address and telephone number/eMail address, possibly also your name. They might also want to adjust your CV, so that the skills the client seeks are more prominent.

The easiest way to achieve this “contact details removed” result is for the recruiter to adjust your CV/resume is an easy to edit format, the most common of which is Microsoft Word. They then want to send the CV is a “fixed” format to their client, and so will use Adobe PDF themselves. Hence, if you ever ask a recruiter which electronic format they want your CV/resume in, they will choose MSWord: because they can edit it, remove your contact details, and get paid for a placement

Submitting your Job Application CV/resume in PDF gives the recruiter a problem: it is difficult to adjust. As time is money in the recruitment world, if you are of interest they will pick up the phone to ask you for an MS Word version of your CV/resume.

Now, how many times have I seen in Job Discussion forums and business groups, that getting hold of a recruiter to chat about a particular job or position, that job applicants found it impossible to get hold of the recruiter, and continually got diverted to voice mail? Well, how about making a technology choice to get the recruiter to call you, and want to speak to you, because they not only find you interesting – but their next pay check depends on speaking to you?

The simple answer therefore to getting employed quicker, is that PDF creates human interaction over MSWord. The recruiter therefore, if your CV/resume is interesting, needs to talk to you. This creates a conversation they make to you, giving interaction with the recruiter and more choice for you over which jobs your details are put forward for. Easy really when you know how.

Good Luck!

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3 Responses to “Why PDF will get you employed over MSWord”

1. Nikki Pilkington Says:
   October 13th, 2009 at 2:59 pm

   Interesting – I’d never thought of it that way.

   But, doesn’t it also mean that your CV will be in one of the first lot ‘discarded’ because it’s too ‘difficult’ to deal with?

   ===============
   If you have the wrong skills, yes Nikki; if you have the right skills, no, it means they will engage with you. It is a rotten little trick – I only picked it up when the researchers in the office would complain when a good candidate came through, and they would have to call for an MSWord based version of the CV – but, it works!

2. RickyGee Says:
   October 13th, 2009 at 3:06 pm

   It’s true that a recruiter will always want to see a Word CV over a PDF.

   You’re also on the money with regards to removing contact details (Although, they’re usually easily removed at this end on a PDF too and you can also make Word CVs ‘Read only’).

   However, the main reason is to make the CV ‘search-able’.

   Most agencies have a database and don’t want to miss the best candidates for current and future assignments…if your CV is a PDF, you’ll slip under the radar on most recruitment databases.

   Rest assured that if your CV is of interest, any recruiter worth their salt will call you…either way.

   Ricky Garcha

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   May 2nd, 2010 at 3:55 pm

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