[midnitewarrior]

I've read that .doc/.docx/Microsoft Word format is the most desired. I've had recruiters tell me this, and I've seen posts on reddit about this. It all comes down to metadata and formatting -- the automated resume parsers do a lot better with Microsoft Word, especially if you use the templates.

[coolmitch]

FWIW, I think word formats are most desired by recruiters because they can be easily edited to ie. remove your name and add skills the recruiter thinks will get it recognized. I'm pretty sure word formats are pretty unamenable to parsing, aren't they?

[wtracy]

I agree 100 percent that recruiters prefer Word docs because they're easier to tamper with. (A recruiter once asked me over the phone if I had my resume in a format other than PDF, then said it was okay because he had a way to edit it anyway!)

That said,

> word formats are pretty unamenable to parsing

Compared to what? Almost all resumes show up in .doc or .pdf format. Maybe the occasional snowflake will submit an HTML file, a WordPerfect document, or a .swf file.

Candidates submitting raw text (or something like JSON) are going to be few and far between. (Although RTF is actually straight text under the hood, and I'm surprised I don't see it mentioned more often.)