Wouldn't it be more efficient just to create a resume site that I rarely need to update? And then to send that link to any recruiter who wants my CV? So that's what I did.
One suggestion... work on a print friendly version of your resume. You're right in the sense that we should just have digital resumes, BUT recruiters, HR, managers, etc. love to pass around PDFs and have something they can quickly reference and print when/if they meet with you. Imagine sifting through hundreds of resumes and having to go to applicants websites to see if they even fit the job - these get weeded out pretty quickly. It's like receiving a word doc instead of a PDF, it doesn't really reflect highly especially in our industry.
Have a look at my resume: jamesthomson.dev/experience. Not saying it's the gold standard, but I've tried to lay it out to be easy to quickly consume and if you CMD+P you get a nice print friendly version that's max 2 pages.
It may be surprisingly but very often it is a problem for them just to download a pdf file by link, they want you exactly TO SEND pdf file. From my real life.
You see.....they are busy people too. They have deadlines and families just like you do. And so they created a system that streamlines their duties. You don't have to like it. But I'm sure you wouldn't like an outside party determining how you do your job either.
Yet you were the one who chose to disregard their ask, and imposed upon them a different workflow.
So it's less about catering to someone's ignorance and/or laziness, and more about respecting their needs as an autonomous person.
This gives the impression that you may only be comfortable doing things your way, and may be difficult to work with. You may very well be fine with the outcome, but it's not fair to blame them or paint them negatively because of your choices.
They could have very likely been interested, and the process may have been less of a shibbolet than you assumed. And because it's all team dependent, some people are only asked fizz buzz and/or leetcode easy. Both of which I'm sure you could handle since they only test problem solving ability.
You seem to be implying that I have some sort of malice toward such people, but I don't. If they can't/won't download or print my CV off the web, that's fine. Doesn't mean I want to work with them. But it's fine. It's their process and they can define it however they want. I totally get that. But every hoop that you ask your candidates to jump through - big or small - will ultimately eliminate some of those candidates. My point is that sometimes you're eliminating high-value candidates who simply can't be bothered.
It helps here to remember the power dynamics involved. It's probably been 20 years since I applied for any job. Every job I've had has occurred because they reached out to me. Maybe that sounds arrogant, but it's the plain truth.
During those times in my life when I truly needed a job, I jumped through every hoop they put in front of me. I'm privileged enough now (I can wholeheartedly acknowledge it) that I almost never need to pursue any job. So, no, I'm not going to reformat my resume just because it doesn't fit neatly into some recruiter's process.
I'm also old enough, and experienced enough, to understand what requirements are there for a legitimate purpose - and which ones are there because someone wants to see all the dots on their screen line up in a neat row.
For example, if they ask me to take a drug test as a precondition of employment, that's a pretty significant hoop. And I'll jump through it every time. Because I understand what the requirement accomplishes. They want a drug-free workplace. I get that. And there's really no way to ensure that unless I agree to take the drug test. So I'll do it.
If they want me to implement their ESLint standards in all my code, of course I'll do it. It serves a legitimate purpose. And if I ignore it or try to implement my own standard, that's pretty much the definition of someone who's not a "team player".
But if their requirement is that I reformat my resume into a .docx format and that I change the font to Comic Sans, then, no - I'm not going to do that. It serves no purpose other than to make them feel good about the idea that I've properly conformed. If that eliminates me from contention, then I honestly couldn't care less. And it's probably a good indication that it's not the type of organization that I'd like to work for anyway.
It's their process and they can define it however they want. I totally get that.
They did. And you could have graciously declined. Instead you decided to still apply, but demand that they bend to your process. This to me is extremely inconsiderate of the recruiter's time. Again, they also have a job to execute and family to tend to. The processes they require were set by the departments they work with. And they get rated on applicants hired, not applicants contacted.
I'm totally on board that the tech hiring process is broken. But asking for a formatted resume isn't where.
But if their requirement is that I reformat my resume into a .docx format and that I change the font to Comic Sans, then, no - I'm not going to do that. It serves no purpose other than to make them feel good about the idea that I've properly conformed.
You seem to assume the recruiters set the standards. You also assume they can force the tools they use to acquiesce to your whims.
Pdfs render better and more consistently than docx. Should they be forced to correct the rendering in their machine just to read your resume?
Did you know that comic sans is easier to read for dyslexics? Should a dyslexic hiring manager understand that you've been in this game too long for such "hoops"?
Asking for a formatted resume has nothing to do with making you feel less than.
And it's probably a good indication that it's not the type of organization that I'd like to work for anyway.
Completely agree. And it was evident from the moment they asked for a formatted resume, that you didn't wish to oblige with.
Yet again, you decided to continue with the process. No one forced you. And you even stated that you felt you would "get the honor" to be rejected during other stages of the process.
I'll repeat, the hiring process is broken. But it's not by asking for a formatted resume. I was hoping to read about how it's actually broken, not about how you feel above sending your info in the format they ask. And that's where you lost me.
Thanks, Adam and James for your feedback. I want to convert my pdf resume to a "print-friendly" responsive HTML page. The problem with the pdf file is that it downloads first and then loads in the browser which then shows it to the viewer and by that time 2 to 3+ seconds pass away. So having a print-friendly resume as you people have will be good.
There are varying opinions about what exactly constitutes "print-friendly". But this is what I specifically did on mine that I believe helps:
Responsive design is generally a must. Because the whole point of responsive design is to gracefully accommodate varying (and potentially unknown-at-programming-time) viewports. So if you're incorporating responsive design, you're probably already a long way toward having something that's reasonably "print-friendly".
Make minimal use of colors - especially, background colors. They can make things unreadable when you print.
This is even more important for background images.
If you still feel compelled to use various colors and images (really, just... don't), you also need to understand that there is no way to actually control whether the user will actually print those out. That's entirely controlled by the print settings on the client, and you can't force such things into the print view.
Use the CSS page break properties to ensure that there aren't any nasty/unnatural page breaks when you go into print view. Although you can't control the exact dimensions that someone else will use when printing your page, you can get a pretty good view for how most people will see it printed by simply pulling up your own page in print-preview mode.
Use CSS @media to hide items that shouldn't be there in the print view. There can be a lot of detritus on the page that looks fine in the browser, but just doesn't work right in print view. For example, on my page, I have that little text effect that keeps spelling out different titles after my name. But in print view, this just freezes at some point, and that frozen text looks illogical. So I hide that entirely in print view. You can do that like this:
One suggestion... work on a print friendly version of your resume. You're right in the sense that we should just have digital resumes, BUT recruiters, HR, managers, etc. love to pass around PDFs and have something they can quickly reference and print when/if they meet with you. Imagine sifting through hundreds of resumes and having to go to applicants websites to see if they even fit the job - these get weeded out pretty quickly. It's like receiving a word doc instead of a PDF, it doesn't really reflect highly especially in our industry.
Have a look at my resume: jamesthomson.dev/experience. Not saying it's the gold standard, but I've tried to lay it out to be easy to quickly consume and if you CMD+P you get a nice print friendly version that's max 2 pages.
The first two questions in my FAQ specifically address this. I purposely worked to make the resume page print-friendly.
It may be surprisingly but very often it is a problem for them just to download a pdf file by link, they want you exactly TO SEND pdf file. From my real life.
I understand that. But it still doesn't mean that I feel compelled to cater to those who can't figure out how to download or print from the web.
I was on board with you until this comment.....
You see.....they are busy people too. They have deadlines and families just like you do. And so they created a system that streamlines their duties. You don't have to like it. But I'm sure you wouldn't like an outside party determining how you do your job either.
Yet you were the one who chose to disregard their ask, and imposed upon them a different workflow.
So it's less about catering to someone's ignorance and/or laziness, and more about respecting their needs as an autonomous person.
This gives the impression that you may only be comfortable doing things your way, and may be difficult to work with. You may very well be fine with the outcome, but it's not fair to blame them or paint them negatively because of your choices.
They could have very likely been interested, and the process may have been less of a shibbolet than you assumed. And because it's all team dependent, some people are only asked fizz buzz and/or leetcode easy. Both of which I'm sure you could handle since they only test problem solving ability.
You seem to be implying that I have some sort of malice toward such people, but I don't. If they can't/won't download or print my CV off the web, that's fine. Doesn't mean I want to work with them. But it's fine. It's their process and they can define it however they want. I totally get that. But every hoop that you ask your candidates to jump through - big or small - will ultimately eliminate some of those candidates. My point is that sometimes you're eliminating high-value candidates who simply can't be bothered.
It helps here to remember the power dynamics involved. It's probably been 20 years since I applied for any job. Every job I've had has occurred because they reached out to me. Maybe that sounds arrogant, but it's the plain truth.
During those times in my life when I truly needed a job, I jumped through every hoop they put in front of me. I'm privileged enough now (I can wholeheartedly acknowledge it) that I almost never need to pursue any job. So, no, I'm not going to reformat my resume just because it doesn't fit neatly into some recruiter's process.
I'm also old enough, and experienced enough, to understand what requirements are there for a legitimate purpose - and which ones are there because someone wants to see all the dots on their screen line up in a neat row.
For example, if they ask me to take a drug test as a precondition of employment, that's a pretty significant hoop. And I'll jump through it every time. Because I understand what the requirement accomplishes. They want a drug-free workplace. I get that. And there's really no way to ensure that unless I agree to take the drug test. So I'll do it.
If they want me to implement their ESLint standards in all my code, of course I'll do it. It serves a legitimate purpose. And if I ignore it or try to implement my own standard, that's pretty much the definition of someone who's not a "team player".
But if their requirement is that I reformat my resume into a
.docxformat and that I change the font to Comic Sans, then, no - I'm not going to do that. It serves no purpose other than to make them feel good about the idea that I've properly conformed. If that eliminates me from contention, then I honestly couldn't care less. And it's probably a good indication that it's not the type of organization that I'd like to work for anyway.They did. And you could have graciously declined. Instead you decided to still apply, but demand that they bend to your process. This to me is extremely inconsiderate of the recruiter's time. Again, they also have a job to execute and family to tend to. The processes they require were set by the departments they work with. And they get rated on applicants hired, not applicants contacted.
I'm totally on board that the tech hiring process is broken. But asking for a formatted resume isn't where.
You seem to assume the recruiters set the standards. You also assume they can force the tools they use to acquiesce to your whims.
Pdfs render better and more consistently than docx. Should they be forced to correct the rendering in their machine just to read your resume?
Did you know that comic sans is easier to read for dyslexics? Should a dyslexic hiring manager understand that you've been in this game too long for such "hoops"?
Asking for a formatted resume has nothing to do with making you feel less than.
Completely agree. And it was evident from the moment they asked for a formatted resume, that you didn't wish to oblige with.
Yet again, you decided to continue with the process. No one forced you. And you even stated that you felt you would "get the honor" to be rejected during other stages of the process.
I'll repeat, the hiring process is broken. But it's not by asking for a formatted resume. I was hoping to read about how it's actually broken, not about how you feel above sending your info in the format they ask. And that's where you lost me.
🙌 🙌 🙌 Alright, man. You win. Peace. 🙌 🙌 🙌
Please help, I also want to make my resume: harshrathod.dev/static/docs/resume... print-friendly. What should I do?
In terms of print-friendliness I would say that it already is. It only uses 1 page and has minimal colour.
Thanks, Adam and James for your feedback. I want to convert my pdf resume to a "print-friendly" responsive HTML page. The problem with the pdf file is that it downloads first and then loads in the browser which then shows it to the viewer and by that time 2 to 3+ seconds pass away. So having a print-friendly resume as you people have will be good.
There are varying opinions about what exactly constitutes "print-friendly". But this is what I specifically did on mine that I believe helps:
@mediato hide items that shouldn't be there in the print view. There can be a lot of detritus on the page that looks fine in the browser, but just doesn't work right in print view. For example, on my page, I have that little text effect that keeps spelling out different titles after my name. But in print view, this just freezes at some point, and that frozen text looks illogical. So I hide that entirely in print view. You can do that like this:Then, whenever you want something to be hidden in the print view, you just add the
hidden-printclass to the element.I don't think this is an exhaustive list, but these things go a long way toward making your content "print-friendly".