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Warning: I spent 2 years sending resumes with the wrong file format
I was applying to jobs in Seattle for 18 months and getting almost no callbacks. Turns out I was saving my resume as a .pages file from my Mac, and most HR systems can't read that. A recruiter finally told me after I asked for feedback on my 60th rejection. She said plain text or PDF is the only way to go. Has anyone else had a tiny formatting mistake mess up their whole job search?
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ryanburns7d ago
Oh come on, I gotta push back on this one. If you spent over a year sending out 60 resumes and never once checked if the file was even readable, that's on you, not the system. Like, how do you not test your own application? That's basic common sense. You're applying for jobs in tech-heavy Seattle and you can't figure out that a .pages file is proprietary Apple nonsense? Every job posting literally says PDF or Word doc right in the instructions. I bet you were also probably applying to roles that required specific software skills too. This isn't a "tiny mistake" - it's a huge oversight that shows zero attention to detail.
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hart.ryan6d ago
Man, I did the same thing last year. Went six months wondering why nobody called me back. Turns out I was sending a corrupted file the whole time. Felt like a total idiot when I finally checked.
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bettymurphy5d ago
Wait, hold on... "every job posting literally says PDF or Word doc right in the instructions"? I had to read that twice, @hart.ryan is that what you were seeing too? Because that's crazy if the instructions were that clear and he still sent a .pages file. I mean, I feel bad for the guy, six months of silence is rough. But missing something that obvious in the instructions feels like a bigger warning sign than just a tiny mistake, you know? Like, if I was a hiring manager and saw a .pages file when I asked for a PDF, I'd probably skip it too.
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