> MS Word is the only game in town, like it or not.

That's stretching it. Most companies are totally fine with PDF these days, not in the least because it is WYSIWYG for screen and print and just works. Looks a lot more professional too; especially if you are looking for a job in IT.

When recruiters or temp agencies ask for Word documents, they want this because then they can strip out all your personal data and pass the documents on to the companies (their customers) looking for employees. With PDF they need to do more work.