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Comment by forca | Hacker News Reader

Yes, I know about this, and thank you for reminding me, but in the end, I just don't trust software.

I really do like old school and I stick with it. I write most of my docs as text in either vi or nano. I neither want nor need formatting beyond the basics. My CV is the only document I own that has formatting, and I used LibreOffice for it. It's a single page.

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You should consider using LaTeX.

That's cool, but lots of people require .doc. It's just easier to use a word variant.

I try my best to break people of that awful habit. I also find that I'm usually happy enough dealing only with people who can manage to open a pdf (or any other non-proprietary format).

Yes. I hate receiving documents in .docx or any other proprietary format, especially if I have not agreed to that format prior to receiving them. I like plain text if at all possible. I'll happily receive PDFs because I can view them under Linux/BSD, but others piss me off. People THINK MS Word is the de facto business standard. It isn't. Text and PDF are the standards. Never had issues with either.

I had a friend tell me my CV should be in PDF and locked down to prevent recruiters and others from changing it to something other than the original. I know recruiters are fond of changing things up without informing you.

You can "print" the text file to a pdf for your CV and get the best of both worlds. My department only allows pdf uploads for CVs, so that's my approach.

>locked down to prevent recruiters and others from changing it to something other than the original

Can you elaborate? Why would they want to change your CV?

Unscrupulous recruiters will sometimes add extra skills or bulk up your experience.

Either to make it better (recruitment agencies, etc), or to make it worse (we want to hire <x> but we have to hire the best-qualified person)

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