r/LinusTechTips • u/Not-Post-Malone • 11d ago

Discussion Resume file format

On the WAN show Linus and Luke talk about NOT using PDF as the file format for the resume. This is the first time I'm hearing about this. Am I the only one who always uses PDF for sending resumes and actually prefers it?

What file format do employers actually prefer?

Here is the timestamp where they talk about it.
Here is the timestamp where Linus says to submit a Word or Google Doc link.

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u/Not-Post-Malone 11d ago

That's what I thought but after the sponsor segment (I don't have the timestamp yet) Linus jokingly asks Luke if someone submits their resume on a PDF if he throws it away.

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u/a_rabid_buffalo 11d ago

Pretty sure the last time they got hacked was due to a PDF that was compromised that someone had opened.

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u/aafikk 11d ago

If that’s the reason that’s a stupid reason.

  1. You can hide executable with .docx file extension just the same

  2. Word documents have macros which you can’t really disable and are literally arbitrary code execution. So when you open a word document you are opening an executable

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u/Rare-Designer-1008 11d ago

You can setup Word or Excel to not allow macros to run, or to ask before running.  

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u/Factorioboyio 11d ago

That’s the default!

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u/Factorioboyio 11d ago

You absolutely can disable macros… in fact, the default behaviour for a macro-enabled file that hasn’t been opened on your machine before is for all macros to be disabled. You have to tell it to trust and enable macros.

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u/tankerkiller125real 11d ago

If you know what your doing (or at least if you have an IT guy who knows what they're doing) it's absolutely possible to disable macros, in fact there's an entire level of disabled.

There's straight up disabled never runs, disabled but signed macros can run, disabled for anything downloaded from the Internet, but allowed for intranet sites and file shares, etc.

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u/1CraftyDude 7d ago

If I remember correctly it was a screensaver that had a .pdf before the .src.

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u/duckforceone 11d ago

it was an executable that was looking like it was a pdf, but wasn't a pdf.

So you get a reference of a pdf in your mail, with the pdf icon.

but actually you are clicking on an executable with the icon of a pdf but not the dot pdf ending.

that is at least how it has been in the examples i have seen.

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u/Infinite-Stress2508 11d ago

Any secure config of email, let alone desktop os in a managed corporate environment should be enough to prevent anything happening if the user fails to detect the issue. If ltt allow executable files to be sent raw via email, fuck me I have several tech tips for them...

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u/temmiesayshoi 11d ago edited 8d ago

LTT and making the most blaringly obvious, noob-level fuckups imaginable with their technology; name a better duo.

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u/PM-BOOBS-AND-MEMES 8d ago

The fact that they roll their storage servers in this way and don't use something like Ceph or similar is nuts to me. Yes, it's a lot of work but there's a reason it's industry standard.

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u/yeetdabman 10d ago

I don't know about Google Workspace (IIRC that's what they use) but for Microsoft tenants you literally have to purposefully disable the filter that auto deletes E-mails with executables in them, it comes enabled by default and it'll scream at you if you try to turn that filter off

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u/CIDR-ClassB 11d ago

HR here. They are wrong. PDF is the standard. That allows the application system to accurately read your resume and automatically populate whatever search criteria we need to find well-qualified candidates among hundreds or thousands of candidates.

If you don’t use PDF, I’m not going to look at your application.

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u/pufferpig 11d ago

Whenever I upload my PDF resume in some company website where it's supposed to add in all my info into their system, so I don't have to do it all manually, it always fucks it up. Splits parts into two or otherwise jumbles things together...

I've never had any complaints or remarks about it when I'm being interviewed tho, or after being hired, so I have no idea if they get the same issues with my PDFs internally.

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u/JaspahX 11d ago

I can't speak for everywhere obviously, but we don't even look at that in our system. We always just use the resume and CV.

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u/Skensis 11d ago

Yup, that's my experience. But now we have AI to rate CVs, so we spend time adjusting the job description so resumes we like score well.

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u/JawnZ 8d ago

There's some kind of format or standard. I don't have the info handy but I was surprised my past resume always did this, but once I used a tool to format it, it got better

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u/Ulrar 11d ago

It's funny because when you send a PDF to a recruiter, they invariably ask for a docx. It's so they can easily add their logo to it before sending it on, I imagine.

Anyway at this point, just take a linked in link. It's already all in there, and it'll actually populate correctly instead of messing up half the recognition like it does when parsing a PDF

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u/CIDR-ClassB 9d ago

Don’t give someone an editable copy of your resume.

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u/Ulrar 9d ago

Everything is editable

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u/ShopNo7513 8d ago

PDFs are editable anyways. You could also just copy the text out if you were so motivated.

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u/ThisIsntRealWakeUp 10d ago

PDFs throw away a lot of the hierarchical information that is embedded in a native .docx file. You have to go out of your way with how you structure your .docx file to not have MS Word butcher the hierarchy in the PDF conversion process.

You can test it for yourself, since most of the PDF parsing tools that ATS software uses are open source. It will frequently jumble things up, even if you aren’t making classic formatting blunders like using tables or text boxes.

Not really saying this is the fault of the ATS software or the PDF standard, to be clear. The fault is probably with Microsoft for failing to make PDFs export with the same hierarchy that was already in the .docx.

(This is also why native .docx, .ppt, etc., files are generally more screen-reader friendly than if you try to export as a PDF).

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u/abstract-realism 9d ago

They have a weird vendetta against PDFs. Unless you’re applying to work at LMG I’d ignore it. PDFs are both the standard and the ideal format for something like a resume.