Resume - MS Word or PDF - which is better?

Asked by: Guest - 19 Apr 16

Should I send my resume to the companies in MS Word format or pdf?

Our expert said - 25 Apr 16

MS Word format is more recommended than the PDF ones. The main reason being, the companies use the ‘Applicant Tracking Software (ATS), which uses keywords to search from the huge list of resume. This ATS is seen to be working best with MS Word. Though the software has been improved and the PDF can also be scanned, yet the candidate cannot afford not to get a look at their resume before getting rejected for such reasons. There are companies who put effort to convert PDF back to word, but that disturbs the resume format and the same may give a substandard appearance.

It is understandable that the PDF is difficult to be amended and hence the resume could be preserved better in comparison to MS Word. But the same technology backfires when the candidates hand over the resume to the recruitment agents. When these agents rectify the simple spelling and grammatical mistakes in Word format, they bother least to make any effort for the PDF file.

Even if the candidate prefers the PDF format, they should avoid converting in to an image file and instead use the standard Word to PDF convertors to serve their purpose.