PDF Resume - The Benefits of a PDF Format Resume

A PDF resume has some distinct benefits when used as an email attachment. A quick guide to the advantages of using a PDF format resume when sending via email.
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You've no doubt heard of PDF documents. Probably opened and read a few in your day. But what about a PDF resume?

The "Portable Document Format" (PDF) by Adobe Systems has become a common format for email resume attachments. The beauty of this file format is that it allows your resume to retain all the formatting bells and whistles that were embedded from your application software (like Word or WordPerfect). But it's delivered independent of application software. Meaning, your email recipients don't need to have your application software (or in some cases, your particular version of Word or WordPerfect) on their computer system to be able to open your resume attachment.

So, if you need to send your resume via email in response to a job listing, or to a corporate contact who has requested your information, should you send it in a PDF format? Well, a PDF resume has 3 distinct advantages as an email attachment - two of which we've already alluded to. And it has one mark against it. Let's explore.

PDF Resumes - The 3 Advantages of a PDF Format Resume

- Consistency. When converting your resume from Word (or WordPerfect) to PDF, all formatting will remain unchanged. Meaning, your resume will look the same to your email recipient as it does to you when viewed with your application software. All the design elements that you carefully incorporated into your Word format resume will remain to please the eye. That includes graphic headers, attractive fonts, bold and italicized words, etc. What you see is what will be delivered.

- Accessibility. A PDF file attachment is readily accessible regardless of the application software package(s) the recipient has bubbling under the surface of his C-drive. And it's accessible whether the recipient is working from a PC or a Mac.

- Safety. A PDF resume is considered a safer email attachment than those of application software, since viruses can't hide in the text of the PDF file.

PDF Resumes - One Down Side

- The one negative with PDF resumes is that they can't be easily read by computers. Actually, that's both a positive and a negative. Positive in the sense that it provides a little more security against possible plagiarism and/or identity theft. Negative in the sense that any PDF resume sent directly from email into a keyword-searchable database will appear as an indecipherable image with no discernable text. The document can be printed and physically scanned into that database, and thereby made workable for keyword searches. But printing and scanning requires additional human intervention.

When To Send a PDF Resume

Send a PDF version as an email attachment when you're sure your resume will be read by a human and not a computer. If it's the other way around, and your resume is likely to be scanned and/or placed into a database, skip the PDF and send an ASCII version of the resume instead. That's a plain text file readable by all computer systems. A Word.doc resume file attachment remains an option as long as you have verified that as a preference of the email recipient.

Here's a final rule of thumb: When in doubt, send along multiple file formats. For example, include both a Word.doc and PDF file, or an ASCII and PDF file. Or heck, how about a Word and PDF file as attachments, with a plain-text ASCII version copied and pasted to the body of the email. Now you're loaded for bear.

Former recruiter David Alan Carter compares the Web's most popular Resume Writing Services at the website http://TopResumeServices.com, reviewing quality of workmanship, spelling out pricing, and giving each a star ranking.

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