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Comment by devs1010 | Hacker News Reader

I tried ditching word format for my resume briefly, however I immediately started receiving replies to please forward a word copy of my resume, so I gave up. I'm afraid non tech people (recruiters) are still living in the past

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From resume Makefile:

    resume.doc : resume.html
            gnuhtml2latex -s resume.html > resume.tex
            latex2rtf resume.tex
            mv resume.rtf resume.doc

Also, FWIW:

    resume.ps : resume.html resume.tidy
            html2ps -Tn resume.html > resume.ps.tmp
            mv resume.ps.tmp resume.ps

    resume.pdf : resume.ps
            ps2pdf resume.ps resume.pdf.tmp
            mv resume.pdf.tmp resume.pdf

what it comes down to though is a lot won't accept anything but word, everyone seems to accept word format, so until people start refusing my resume in word format I don't see a reason to put any effort into a different format. Its probably just me being lazy though

What you may be missing here: I've got a build system for my resume. It outputs not only various formats (HTML, text, PDF, Word), but multiple versions (short abstract, stripped of detail and street address for Web, full-detailed general resume, specifically tailored for a given job prospect if I'm interested). Revision controlled. Automatically updated. Changes to global sections reflected in all versions and output formats.

Its a cool concept, but do you actually send the resume in all these formats when you apply? I find that some of the non-tech people seem to get confused if you send them more than 1 format so I just keep it simple, I've also found they will but absolutely 0 effort into retrieving a resume, so even if I send them a url where I have it downloadable in a bunch of formats they won't go to the url and instead will just demand that I send it to them via email

My preference is to send PDF (I know what it is, it's not readily editable). I have HTML posted online. Many recruiters request Word, and I can accomodate them. For online boards (Monster, Dice, etc.) a textfile I can dump is a better fit.

I've got all of these at my fingertips.

And yes, I've told plenty of recruiters to grab my resume from my homepage URL, or sent them the link rather than the document itself.

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