Recruiter asking for resume in Word format instead of PDF

Cert Poor

I'm brand new to dealing with recruiters and have read some interesting things on both TechExams and online. Some are more honest than others. This one recruiter would like to recommend me to a company but first needs my resume in Word format because "some HR systems don't accept PDFs."

This immediately set off warning bells, since ALL systems I've encountered accept PDF. My guess is he's lying so that he can change some things about my resume, which tampers with the integrity of it. Heck, maybe I could sign it with my private key and then password protect the editing. After all, he SAID he just wants it in Word format for submission purposes, so a read-only Word document wouldn't be relevant, no?

My question to you guys is what's your experience with this? Do they want to add their recruiting company logo to the header of your resume, or are they actually going to go in and screw around with the content and change stuff? That seems highly sketchy if so.

networker050184

A lot of time recruiters will replace of your contact info with theirs so the company can't contact you directly. Not really that big of a deal and I wouldn't worry about it. It's not like they couldn't convert your PDF into a Word doc anyway.

CompuTron99

I've had a portion of my resume header replaced with the recruiter information. They removed my address, phone number, and email address, and replaced it with the recruiting companies letterhead.

CompuTron99

networker050184 wrote: »

A lot of time recruiters will replace of your contact info with theirs so the company can't contact you directly. Not really that big of a deal and I wouldn't worry about it. It's not like they couldn't convert your PDF into a Word doc anyway.

+1 networker050184

Cert Poor

I guess that makes sense. It'd just be nice if he were directly honest about that instead of saying that HR systems don't accept PDF. If that's all he's changing, that's totally acceptable. It's just the dishonesty and not expecting a technical person to pick up on that right away. :P Thanks everyone, I'll go ahead and proceed. I'm still cautious about the recruiting game and would prefer direct hire.

networker050184

I definitely understand and feel the same way. I'd much rather go the direct hire route, but sometimes you have to play the game. Good luck!

gbdavidx

I dont even have a pdf version, i always send in .doc or docx

Anonymouse

I've read on here that they will sometimes edit your resume to make it appeal more to the hiring managers at the work site. I had a temp come work in my department who didn't know that the recruiter had changed his name on the resume. His last name was hyphenated but they removed the second portion of his last name. I had initially created his accounts using the name supplied to us by the temp agency. He seemed pretty irked at them for editing his name on the resume.

apr911

networker050184 wrote: »

A lot of time recruiters will replace of your contact info with theirs so the company can't contact you directly. Not really that big of a deal and I wouldn't worry about it. It's not like they couldn't convert your PDF into a Word doc anyway.

My pdf resume has a digital watermark that is only visible when its been converted. Not saying that it's impossible to covert my resume back to word but its not exactly easy either. I also add a hex digit to my resume for any that I share with recruiters/3rd parties or publicly. Its innocuous enough that they dont otherwise notice or remove it so it generally allows me to track its distribution.

BlackBeret

apr911 wrote: »

My pdf resume has a digital watermark that is only visible when its been converted. Not saying that it's impossible to covert my resume back to word but its not exactly easy either. I also add a hex digit to my resume for any that I share with recruiters/3rd parties or publicly. Its innocuous enough that they dont otherwise notice or remove it so it generally allows me to track its distribution.

How does that allow you track it's distribution? I can put whatever I want on it short of a reverse payload and I have no idea where it goes. I'm honestly interested as I'm trying to enter the civilian job market and my resume needs some serious work, so I'm not opposed to ideas.

apr911

Every recruiter/3rd party or job site I post it to gets its own hex number. Then I just match the version and hex number and I know where they got the resume from. Its doesnt completely track its use but it does give me some way to trace it back to the recruiter or job site.

Ive caught recruiter's modifying the resume, submitting the resume to jobs I didnt agree to and passing off a resume I posted on Dice as one they were authorized to send to prospective employers.

Xyro

Word is just the standard format for resumes, at least where I am. I believed it was like this everywhere in the United States.

yzT

I usually send my resume in pdf but doc is ok as well. In fact, it's even better. How many times have you copied & pasted from a pdf and the format got screwed?

The only time a recruiter asked me for a doc version was to improve my resume, she specifically told me to change some things or just send her the doc version and she would change them.

jleydon82

I would not be concerned at all this is very common. I don't normally see a recruiter modify the content of a resume but recruiters do not want their customers to contact you directly and remove your personal details (phone/email) so they cannot contact you directly and bypass their recruiting firm.

Danielm7

Same as the others, I've seen them put their own header on it. If they are going to edit the content I'd want to see what they are changing before they gave it to the business. If they wanted me to look "more attractive" in certain tech to get me the interview I don't want to walk in being clueless about it.

Cert Poor

Just spoke with a brand new recruiter (MODIS) on a separate contract opportunity, and this person stated she had some "scraped" version of my resume from "Careerbuilder or something." I believe this to be 100% false since I uploaded a PDF to Dice.com. But anyway this recruiter then asked me to e-mail her a Word document since "their system only accepts Word documents."

I then immediately but professionally called her out on her lie by saying, "I've heard that same line from other recruiters who ask for my resume in Word format, and it's not because the client company only accepts Word as you say but it's because you want to remove my contact information from my resume and insert your own contact information. I totally understand that, but I would appreciate some honesty on your part." She then changed course and agreed with me and said "yes, and it's also so we can remove the year you graduated as well as put our company's information in the header."

I can't tell you how good it feels to not be a doormat and accept the intellectual insult of being lied to. It's good, morally speaking, to call a spade a spade and a lie a lie, as long as courage is maintained as well as tactfulness (my tone of voice was polite yet firm). I think she handled it well, but my point remains: In life, if someone is willing to lie to you about the small things, they are also willing to lie to you about the bigger things.

Trust is earned, and she might have blown the deal for this client. I have other offers with more honest recruiters and direct hire companies.


One other thing, she needed to create a "Secure ID" with my application to this client and asked for my social security number. I stated I wasn't comfortable giving that out and she then allowed me to use my phone number. I'm glad I didn't just volunteer that PII to some stranger on the phone, having lived through the nightmare of identity theft myself. Lessons learned!

Edit 2: This recruiter manager is being aggressive and asking me to give my consent for them to represent me, and I haven't even seen the job description. Calling and e-mailing aggressively and asking me to hurry up. Are recruiters really this desperate? I like to know what the job is about before giving legal consent to anything, especially on a cold caller who wanted my social and lied to me. Good Lord no wonder the rule of thumb is to avoid recruiters.

ccnpninja

I would send them a Word doc with a screenshot of my resume in it...

Akaricloud

To be fair, I have ran across multiple systems that only allowed .rtf, .doc and .docx files to be uploaded. Not everywhere accepts PDFs, that is a valid reason.

networker050184

I think you are being a bot too paranoid. I get the SSN thing, but if someone was being difficult about a Word doc I'd probably just pass them up and go onto the next person. As Akaricloud stated I have applied to a few jobs that would not allow a PDF to be uploaded though it has been a few years now since I can remember that being the case.

jvrlopez

Applied to plenty of places that didn't allow .pdfs and only allowed .docs or asked you input it directly (copy/paste).

Nothing bad ever came of it. I've actually seen my resume printed out from the HR/interviewer after submitting it as a Word document. One was a direct print out, the other took just all the text and dumped it into a plain text document (no formatting). No unauthorized changes.

I got a 100% increase in salary from my resume making the rounds into the right hands...

PurpleIT

Cert Poor wrote: »

Edit 2: This recruiter manager is being aggressive and asking me to give my consent for them to represent me, and I haven't even seen the job description. Calling and e-mailing aggressively and asking me to hurry up. Are recruiters really this desperate? I like to know what the job is about before giving legal consent to anything, especially on a cold caller who wanted my social and lied to me. Good Lord no wonder the rule of thumb is to avoid recruiters.

I am going to assume (and you know what that means) that she means consent to represent you FOR THIS JOB ONLY. I have given my OK for such things several times; my thought is unless I have already applied to the job I am getting my resume in front of yet another set of eyes and I am not losing anything by letting them represent me on FOR THIS ONE JOB.

That said, go with your gut - only you know how this is making you feel.

Raystafarian

There's some pretty good discussion on this topic in this thread over at stackexchange

Cert Poor

PurpleIT wrote: »

I am going to assume (and you know what that means) that she means consent to represent you FOR THIS JOB ONLY. I have given my OK for such things several times; my thought is unless I have already applied to the job I am getting my resume in front of yet another set of eyes and I am not losing anything by letting them represent me on FOR THIS ONE JOB.

That said, go with your gut - only you know how this is making you feel.

I understand it was consent for one job representation. My caution came because I didn't even know what the job was about, at all. She didn't have a job description and said she'd get back to me, but first she needed to submit my information right away and to respond quickly.

It just felt like i was dealing with a used car salesman. It doesn't make sense to me to apply for a job that I know nothing about. It's important that both an employer as well as myself are a good match, and it's predatory to just want to shoot first, ask questions later; i.e., don't read the fine print, just sign.

---

Also, I received [anonymous] negative feedback. Will someone please directly explain his/her logic and come publicly? I'm new to IT and even newer to recruiters (never dealt with them at all), so I come to Tech Exams for feedback from those who have dealt with recruiters even moreso. I will always assert and stand up for myself when I say a recruiter is being dishonest, and the more I learn about IT recruiting, the more I believe that assertion is grounded in truth. There truly are unethical recruiters out there, both individuals as well as companies.

I come for help, and my expectations are that people will not deliver negative feedback to me. That really leaves a negative feeling in my mouth, and it violates the Golden Rule.

Raystafarian wrote: »

There's some pretty good discussion on this topic in this thread over at stackexchange

Thank you Raystafarian! It's pretty funny how much overlap there is between this thread and the Stack Exchange one.

Also, thanks to apr911 for the example of using a digital watermark as well as innocuous hex codes to track distribution. I had considered signing a PDF document with my private key to ensure integrity but never considered the watermark method in case the PDF is converted. And the hex code is brilliant.

I've dealt with about 3 recruiting companies that have been so warm and helpful lately, so I know there are diamonds in the rough.

But I will tell you folks, my anecdotal experience thus far is that there are so many unprofessional and dishonest recruiters out there, and it's very surprising honestly. One randomly copied and pasted a job description and emailed me. No intro or anything. Never worked with the guy before, so it was socially awkward. One from Robert Half Technology was really rude on the phone and told me to change things on my resume like job titles and dates and content (which is REALLY dishonest, what the hell man) before he'd submit me, but hurry up and come into our office to get in our system! I looked up reviews of Robert Half online, and there's plenty of negative feedback, so I know I'm not crazy here.

Others seem to bait-and-switch me and call about one position. When i call back they say "Hey, that position is filled, but how about you come into our office and get into our system?" That to me seems like a bait-and-switch tactic just to get fresh meat into their system. Why not just be honest?

Cert Poor

Akaricloud wrote: »

To be fair, I have ran across multiple systems that only allowed .rtf, .doc and .docx files to be uploaded. Not everywhere accepts PDFs, that is a valid reason.

networker050184 wrote:

I think you are being a bot too paranoid. I get the SSN thing, but if someone was being difficult about a Word doc I'd probably just pass them up and go onto the next person. As Akaricloud stated I have applied to a few jobs that would not allow a PDF to be uploaded though it has been a few years now since I can remember that being the case.

jvrlopez wrote:

Applied to plenty of places that didn't allow .pdfs and only allowed .docs or asked you input it directly (copy/paste).

Gentlemen I appreciate your feedback, but I think you missed my point. I do realize there are legacy systems that do not accept PDF format (though rare) and/or only allow plaintext input. My point wasn't the fact that those systems still exist; my point was that the recruiter was dishonest with the reason. They wanted to 1) strip out information, which is perfectly acceptable to me, and 2) change content of my resume, which is something that I would need to work with them to make sure they don't materially change my skills/experience.

Once again, it's the lack of ethics and honesty that I am against, not the fact that some systems only allow doc/rtf/plaintext.

All I am doing is asking more experienced members of TE to verify their experience with me, and this thread has been monumentally helpful.

Raystafarian

Cert Poor wrote: »

But I will tell you folks, my anecdotal experience thus far is that there are so many unprofessional and dishonest recruiters out there, and it's very surprising honestly. One randomly copied and pasted a job description and emailed me. No intro or anything. Never worked with the guy before, so it was socially awkward. One from Robert Half Technology was really rude on the phone and told me to change things on my resume like job titles and dates and content (which is REALLY dishonest, what the hell man) before he'd submit me, but hurry up and come into our office to get in our system! I looked up reviews of Robert Half online, and there's plenty of negative feedback, so I know I'm not crazy here.

Others seem to bait-and-switch me and call about one position. When i call back they say "Hey, that position is filled, but how about you come into our office and get into our system?" That to me seems like a bait-and-switch tactic just to get fresh meat into their system. Why not just be honest?

Get used to it, honestly. Only deal with people you feel are up front with you. I know, for instance, RH has "quotas" they need to meet for "meeting with candidates" which is why they always want you to come out to "discuss" the resume and not about a specific position. The more people they meet and the more 'less qualified' candidates they put out with their qualified candidate, the better they think they look. I know this from the financial side, not the IT side, but I refuse to speak with anyone from that company or their subsidiaries now.

PurpleIT

Cert Poor wrote: »

I understand it was consent for one job representation. My caution came because I didn't even know what the job was about, at all. She didn't have a job description and said she'd get back to me, but first she needed to submit my information right away and to respond quickly.

It just felt like i was dealing with a used car salesman. It doesn't make sense to me to apply for a job that I know nothing about. It's important that both an employer as well as myself are a good match, and it's predatory to just want to shoot first, ask questions later; i.e., don't read the fine print, just sign.

Yeah, that is pretty sketchy, but as you have deduced, a lot of them are not completely above-board. Their job is to put a body into a job, it could be your body, some other body, a dead body, they don't care; they want to get paid. Of course, not all are like this, but that is how I classify them until they prove otherwise.

Here's the thing though; they are self-serving and so am I, if they get me a job I want I am OK with it.

iBrokeIT

I've worked with good recruiters and bad recruiters. Offer your mid to high salary range up front. DO NOT ever give them your minimum salary because that is the number where they will usually start negotiations at!

If they absolutely must have a word document resume tell them you are unconfortable with that but will do so as long as any changes are authorized by you before sending it to their client. Also inform them that if they make any unauthorized changes you will consider that misrepresentation and breach of contract which will allow you to negotiate with the client directly.

Cert Poor

Thank you everyone. I'll lower my standards and expectations and just deal with them accordingly. There's some good ones out there for sure.