[intlplby]

I'm about to submit my résumé online to an prospective employer and i absolute HATE it when they give you a form for submission. As a huge proponent of proper typography and layout in professional documents, text documents simply cannot begin to do justice. When I spend a long time getting things just right in InDesign, I want it to get to the person as a PDF.

Does anyone else hate this?

I remember spending like 5 hours one time trying to get my formatting correct on monster.com and eventually decided to apply directly to the companies.

[autodata]

I've been thinking about this a lot recently as I've been starting to look for a new job for the first time in a number of years. Most resume books I've read suggest staying away from trying to make the design, layout and typography interesting. One main reason for this is that most large companies and organizations now strip resumes down to text and store them in a database anyway. Personally, I've worked and reworked my resume to an obsessive degree and have come up with a solution that eliminates tabs and bullet points. For the print one I have section headers in bold, but since it's not really a design element nothing gets screwed up when changed to plain text.

FWIW, the two best (IMO, of course) resources I've found are the book The Elements of Resume Style by Scott Bennett and this how to write a masterpiece resume.

[intlplby]

got a link to your resume with the format that eliminates tabs and bullets? i'm curious

using plain text you can't use true italics, small caps or OSF... that destroys readability

here's mine:
resume

you simply can't begin to get anywhere near that level of readability with plaintext

the thing with PDFs is that in the right hands you can add tons of things like embedded keywords and metadata, multi-language support/localization (i.e. if your computer is set to another language and your resume is set in that language on a different layer, it will auto choose it)

[autodata]

Here. I've removed all identifying information. Of course, how I have it here is not necessarily right for you or even for me (tech skills probably not specific enough and casting too wide of a net), it's just what I've come up with using a bunch of principles from my research.

Also, I don't know what HR depts. in fashion-related businesses are looking for.

You should check out those resources I mentioned. They explain in detail the whys and hows.

First/Last Name 69 Sex Dr. Nowheresville, ST 12345 555-555-555 me@example.com Technical Skills Programming Languages: Java, C/Obj-C/C++, Perl, Ruby (Rails), Python, SQL, XML, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Unix shells and tools. Operating Systems: Unix (Linux, OS X), Windows 95/98/2000/NT/XP and others. Extensive experience with most Adobe/Macromedia software. Education Nerd University, College Town, ST ------------------------------------ Grad Degree. (Year-Year) Blurb about degree. Cumulative GPA: 4.0/4.0. Bachelor's Degree. Major: Payne. (Year-Year) Blurb about degree. Relevant Experience Current Employer, Town, ST ------------------------------------ Current Title (Month YR-Present) Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Sed varius enim eget orci. Fusce malesuada tellus eu felis. Phasellus vitae augue non libero tempus accumsan. Aenean erat elit, mattis non, rhoncus at, lobortis vitae, mauris. Duis scelerisque. Sed eget urna. Duis erat lorem, faucibus pellentesque, gravida porttitor, luctus a, ligula. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; In non tellus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Fusce vel tortor vitae libero posuere interdum. Fusce sed purus.. Previous Title (Month YR-Month YR) Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Sed varius enim eget orci. Fusce malesuada tellus eu felis. Phasellus vitae augue non libero tempus accumsan. Aenean erat elit, mattis non, rhoncus at, lobortis vitae, mauris. Duis scelerisque. Sed eget urna. Duis erat lorem, faucibus pellentesque, gravida porttitor, luctus a, ligula. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; In non tellus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Fusce vel tortor vitae libero posuere interdum. Fusce sed purus. Leadership Experience Organization President, Year-Year; Other Officer Position, Year-Year. Blurb about position Committee Membership Committee 1, Year-Year. Committee 2, Year-Year. Committee 3, Year-Year.

[Mac+]

Damn man that GPA is superb ... and you speak Latin!

This place is filled with über geeks!

[Fahrenheit]

autodata, how come I've never met you, since you live right by me.