PDF or Word: which file should you send

Send a PDF by default

A PDF keeps your layout identical on every machine. A Word file re-flows depending on fonts and version, which is how a carefully fitted one-page resume arrives with your last job pushed onto page two.

Modern applicant tracking systems read PDFs perfectly well. The parsing problems people blame on PDF are almost always the layout inside it: columns, tables, text boxes, headers.

The exceptions

There are three, and they are worth respecting when they come up.

• The advert asks for Word. Follow the instruction - some agencies rebrand your CV with their letterhead before sending it to the client.
• The employer uses an old portal that rejects PDF uploads. Rare, but it happens with legacy government systems.
• A recruiter says their system mangles your file. Send both and let them pick.

The PDF that does break parsing

One kind genuinely fails: a PDF made from a scan or a photo. There is no text in it, only an image of text, so a parser extracts nothing at all and your application is empty.

Check yours in five seconds: open it, select all, copy, paste into a text editor. If nothing appears, it is a scan and you need to export a real PDF instead.

Name the file properly

Firstname-Lastname-Role.pdf. The file name shows up in the recruiter's folder and in the tracking system, and it is the difference between being findable and being cv-final-2.pdf among two hundred others.

Keep the name free of version numbers and dates. Nobody needs to know this is your fourth draft.

What actually breaks inside the file

When a resume parses badly, the format is rarely the culprit. The layout inside it is: two columns read straight across, a table whose cells interleave, a header holding your phone number that gets skipped, a text box extracted out of order.

That is why a plain single-column PDF beats a decorated Word file. Fix the layout, and the format question stops mattering.

Fonts, links and file size

Export with the fonts embedded - every proper PDF export does this - so your document looks the same on a machine that has never heard of your typeface. Keep the file under about 2 MB; email gateways at large employers still bounce fat attachments.

Check that links are real links after export. A LinkedIn URL that shows as text but does not click is a small, avoidable loss.

Keep a plain-text copy for portals

Many application portals ask you to paste your resume into a text box, and some parse that text rather than your upload. Pasting from a two-column PDF produces scrambled order; pasting from a clean single-column one produces something readable.

Export a plain text version once, tidy the line breaks, and keep it beside your PDF. It saves ten minutes on every portal application.

One file, not a zip

Send a single document unless the employer asks for more. Zipped folders get blocked by mail filters, and certificates, references and portfolios sent unasked rarely get opened.

If your work needs showing, put one link in your contact line and let the reader choose.

Printing it

If you are taking a copy to an interview or a career fair, print the PDF rather than the Word file, on plain white A4 or US Letter depending on the country, single-sided.

Check the margins survive your printer - many default to shrinking the page, which quietly changes the layout you carefully fitted.