PDF, Word, or plain text: which file to send

The short answer

Send a PDF unless you have been asked for something else. It renders the same everywhere, it cannot be edited by accident, and every modern parser reads one that contains real text.

Send a Word .docx when the posting or the recruiter asks for one. Agency recruiters often do, because they add their own branding before passing it on. A .docx built from real named styles parses at least as well as a PDF and sometimes better, because the file states which paragraph is a heading rather than leaving it to be inferred.

Use plain text when you are pasting into a form field. It is the only format that survives a textarea intact, and it is what the “paste your resume” box on an application portal actually wants.

What matters more than the format

The format argument gets far more attention than it deserves. A PDF and a .docx of the same single-column resume parse about equally well, and both parse badly if the document underneath them is badly built. These four things decide the outcome, and none of them is the file extension.

• •That the file contains real text. A PDF exported as an image is unreadable to every parser, whatever its extension.
• •That the layout is one column. Both formats parse well single-column and both can be mangled in two.
• •That the contact details are in the body, not in a page header or footer.
• •That the filename is legible to a human. It is for the recruiter's downloads folder — no applicant tracking system searches on it.

You can see the difference for yourself: /check extracts the text from any PDF or .docx and shows what came back.

The advice you can ignore

• •“Never send a PDF, they cannot be read.” This was true in the early 2000s and has not been true for a long time. Every current parser reads a text-bearing PDF.
• •“Always send .docx, it is what recruiters want.” Some do, and they will say so. Sending an editable file to an employer who did not ask means your resume can be altered before a hiring manager sees it.
• •“Use .rtf for maximum compatibility.” It solves a problem nobody has had since Word 2007, and it loses formatting on the way.
• •“Name the file with keywords so the ATS finds it.” No system searches on the filename. It is read by a person deciding which of forty downloads to open.

The one situation where the format genuinely matters is an older or heavily customised portal that accepts only one type. When that happens the form says so, and it is the only instruction worth following over your own judgement.

Sending more than one

Applying by email to a person, rather than through a portal, is the one case for attaching two files: the PDF for reading, and the .docx in case they are an agency recruiter who will reformat it. Say which is which in one line. Beyond that, one file is one decision fewer for the person receiving it.