Comment by throwaway_391 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by throwaway_391 | Hacker News Reader

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I would recommend against using Office 365 web ui for word/excel etc, I'd also recommend avoiding the MacOS Office build for the same reason:

They're both buggy as hell, the type of bugs that will make your document render in unintended ways when somebody opens it on the other side. At some point, Word for Mac decided to remove whitespace between words on my resume - I couldn't see them and generally exported to PDF, but I didn't hear back from prospective jobs that asked for a word format specifically.

Office 365 Web and desktop application really need a complete revamp, they have reproducible bugs and horrible UI/UX in edge cases.

I also really hate when Microsoft decides I want to store my sensitive data on their cloud for no apparent reason despite saving to local disk, it really seems like a 'whoops we accidentally did this but you should try it!' kind of move from MS. This is the perfect example of a monolithic application with chronic feature creep.

> I didn't hear back from prospective jobs that asked for a word format specifically

This almost always means you're speaking to a recruiter who is going to strip your identity from the resume so they can hold it hostage for an agreed commission. This also puts your submission at a disadvantage because you're automatically 10% more expensive than the next guy.

If you're submitting your job application, double check that you're submitting through the company's preferred channel. Look for the job on their own website. And be suspicious when they request an editable file format.

Thanks for the tip, I learnt this a long time ago, I've also moved into an industry where dealing with recruiters would probably indicate other issues like lack of ability to research prospective employers, etc.

I'm glad it's becoming more common knowledge though. Recruiters have long been redundant compared to job search websites like seek.

A good one though, very much worth it.

In some cases yes, but the majority of jobs are never formally advertised.

Where do you think MD (Managing Directors), CxOs and other high level people go for jobs?

The majority of them will get their next position through who they know, not a job board.

I was lucky enough that I never had to apply for a job with such requirements, but how does one learn about stuff like this?

Have friends that work/have worked as a recruiter :)

PDF files aren't safe either. Even if you gave them a JPEG, they'd just transcribe your data into their own little CV template.

Sure they can, but they'll still try for a DOC file because that makes their lives easier.

The answer isn't to try to "beat" the recruiter with PDFs and JPEGs; the answer is to run away and find a more direct path to the employer.

In my case, it was what I discovered after having it explained to me during a job interview why the salary I was asking for wasn’t feasible. The company straight up said they couldn’t afford on top of the recruiter’s commission. I had assumed the recruiter was representing the company, but after that experience I spent time learning about the murky side of recruitment.

I had a really awesome boss who probably overshared about stuff like this but a lot of it also comes with general distrust in the business world. People are out to make a buck and they'll do it anyway they can. Every time you come across a business, consider how it works and where their profit comes from.

A tactic I've used in the past is buying a burner number (prepaid sim), called recruiters with a fake name, number and resume and asked them to provide details about the job which many of them name completely. The ones that don't generally indicate that other recruiters do exactly what I'm doing to them in order to steal clients.

I don't feel bad about screwing over an industry which has no place in the modern world, particularly when they're opportunistically trying to make a buck from me and/or my future company while adding very, very little value :)

> I'd also recommend avoiding the MacOS Office build for the same reason

I never understood why they made it a effectively a different product. (Once you go past the trivial interaction) Different features, different behaviours, different problems. Why is excel for Mac not the same engine with a different UI?

Probably likely to do with the toolkit used to build the Windows version and inability or unwillingness to port it to Mac.

They really need to start from scratch and build solid, easily testable product because the current methodology doesn't work.

I especially love the bugs where when in one specific track changes mode typing in the comments section drops keys, or when using 'read aloud' the voice randomly changes gender. Office 365 on a Windows 10 LTSC virtualised host w/ no other software.

> They really need to start from scratch and build solid, easily testable product because the current methodology doesn't work.

Isn't that exactly what you're trying to do with the web version

Honestly, Libre Office has better compatibility between office versions, then MS Office.

I also like Abi Word, but it's only a word processor, not a full suite. I keep it around because it will open damn near any word processing format.

I actually thought that this is what they were doing:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-microsoft-is-taking-on-the...

Hmm... Maybe I'm using something from before this project was finished. The support pages claim that the latest versions have the same behaviours between Win and Mac for the features I was interested in. May be time to upgrade.

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