[danudey]

I don't have anything that can (reliably) create .doc files that consistently view the same in MS Word as they do in the application I've created them (I create and update my resume in Pages on the Mac). Creating a PDF means I know what it'll look like when they see it.

I once sent a .doc file to a potential employer, and when I arrived for my interview I saw that the font it had fallen back to (since it didn't have the exact one I'd used) was an aliased version of Courier for some ridiculous reason. It was ugly and difficult to read, the spacing was entirely incorrect, and it was generally a mess. If I were an employer and received a resume that looked like that, I'd surely count it as points against them (though it's possible that accepting Word document resumes means that this happens frequently and you get used to it).

I don't mind using MS Word at work, but I don't use it at home and have no intention of paying for it, so being able to provide someone a reliable, working document is not a guarantee unless I'm using PDF.

[imrehg]

Google Docs? LibreOffice? Just make it simple, if they are about box ticking then it does not matter at all how well your resume looks (as e.g. a PDF version would).

I mean I feel your pain, Word Docs give me the cold shivers, but there are some tools.

[danssig]

None of those things will produce a word document that looks exactly in Word like it did when I created it. This is the problem.

[matwood]

Word doesn't produce a document that looks exactly like the document you created unless only open and view that document on the same version of word you created it on. Everyone, even HR/business types, inherently know this from their years of dealing with Word.

In short, if your format messes up a little bit no one cares.

[billybob]

And yet, having your format messed up is completely unnecessary. We have this format called PDF which exists solely to make the same document look the same for everybody. It works on every major platform and is supposed by lots of software.

Unless the HR department intends to edit your resume, why on earth wouldn't they accept PDF?