If you provide your CV as an editable word editor document instead of a PDF then there's no way you're making it to the interview round if I'm the AI assigned to screen your application.
this post was submitted on 11 May 2026
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me_irl
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So many times in my early career, recruiters specified that my resume had to be in .doc rather than .pdf. One of them even said that it was so they could remove any identifying factors before sending it to their clients.
I wish I'd been canny enough to recognize that as a red flag.
edit: I've since written a script to generate a pdf resume from a yaml file. Good luck with that, recruiters!
that script sounds hot..
In Germany we ask back: Can you explain the gap in your company's history between 1933 and 1945?
Are you applying to IBM or Hugo Boss?
Can you explain the gap between 1970-01-01 and 2013-05-06?
CMOS battery died.
Ok, now I am extremely concerned what you were doing during your gap.
I was creating a gap in my CV, that's what I was doing.
That's some of those what the fuck do you need yo know that for questions.
Like why did you leave company ABC in 2011?!!
Or the whole, please let us spend 30 minutes reading your CV. Asking why you left every fucking company...
I wonder if they just don't read CVs beforehand and have no idea about how to conduct an interview.
Isn't that the truth.
no, they failed for not sending it as a PDF