Sending OpenOffice (.odt) files to employers

hychamaz · Post by **hychamaz** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:24 pm

Hello,
I hope that someone can help me here. I am working on my CV and have created it in Open Office. The problem I see is that it saves files in .odt format. I can save it in Word format but it reformats everything. Should I expect that most everyone has Open Office and will be fine reading my CV?? Thanks everyone.

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pierrot · Post by **pierrot** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:28 pm

Do you seriously expect any potential employer to install a software just to be able to read your CV?
That's like number one reason not to even look at the application.
Save it as adobe Acrobat (.pdf), this is the best way to make sure the recipient can read it and that the format doesn't change.

greenhorn · Post by **greenhorn** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:38 pm

Most of the office computers don't usually have Open Office, and as said above, no one will install a software to read your CV. Most of the Nokia mobile phones on the other hand do have open office, but I don't think they will check out your CV on their phone.

hychamaz · Post by **hychamaz** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:58 pm

Thanks guys for your help. Boy u guys are harsh. Of course I know that no one would install a program to read my CV. Im not a freakin idiot. All I was asking is if most companies had Open Office. Thats it.

I was thinking of the PDF format, but was wondering if employers would be ok with that. If I have to go out and buy Microsoft Word, that is fine. I just hate to pay into Microsofts monopoloy. Any other feedback would greatly be appreciated. Thanks

ajdias · Post by **ajdias** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:03 pm

hychamaz wrote:Thanks guys for your help. Boy u guys are harsh. Of course I know that no one would install a program to read my CV. Im not a freakin idiot. All I was asking is if most companies had Open Office. Thats it. I was thinking of the PDF format, but was wondering if employers would be ok with that. If I have to go out and buy Microsoft Word, that is fine. I just hate to pay into Microsofts monopoloy. Any other feedback would greatly be appreciated. Thanks

Your Open office should have an option to "save as" Microsoft word 97/2000/XP (.doc). That should do. Still, I think PDF is better as it looks nice, clean and it will display as you've intended (word messes up documents at times).

hychamaz · Post by **hychamaz** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:31 pm

Yup, it totally misaligned my bullet points.

pierrot · Post by **pierrot** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 12:15 am

hychamaz wrote:Thanks guys for your help. Boy u guys are harsh. Of course I know that no one would install a program to read my CV. Im not a freakin idiot. All I was asking is if most companies had Open Office. Thats it. I was thinking of the PDF format, but was wondering if employers would be ok with that. If I have to go out and buy Microsoft Word, that is fine. I just hate to pay into Microsofts monopoloy. Any other feedback would greatly be appreciated. Thanks

A word of advise: don't go for Word format.
Either PDF or RTF (rich text format). There are also some freeware pdf-creators which basically install a printer driver that will create PDFs when you send your files to that virtual printer.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 1:49 am

yeah, PDF definitely. one idea is then post your CV on the net and link to it, as people hate getting crap and usually the firewalls delete attachments

automagic · Post by **automagic** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 10:35 am

Hey,
You don't need to buy Macrosoft Word for that. You can download PDF995 off the net (its free) and convert almost any docs to PDF. It uses your printer driver to 'print' to a file, in PDF of course. http://www.pdf995.com/

jas_rho · Post by **jas_rho** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 12:56 pm

I guess there is no reason to add to this post that PDF would be the way to go because everyone else already has said it but I want to say it as well!

I have always sent my CV in PDF format and why would a potential employer not like that? Its a format everyone can open (hopefully

) Anyway, it guarantees that the viewer will see it the way you meant it to be formatted and also then no one can change it. Many times CVs get forwarded within a company and if its in word or any other editable format some changes (on purpose or accidental) might get made without you ever knowing about it.

DMC · Post by **DMC** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 2:51 pm

jas_rho wrote:I have always sent my CV in PDF format and why would a potential employer not like that?

I can see why PDF would be a popular choice, but when I have been recruiting I have always liked CVs in an editable format. I like to be able to extract or highlight good/bad/interesting snippets, add comments & questions etc, without having to print.

hychamaz · Post by **hychamaz** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 7:59 pm

Thank you everyone for your answers. I think that I will go with the PDF format as rtf looks good but I need to add a picture and PDF wont have a problem with that, correct?? Also, I dont think I will need to do anything with any third party software or the virtual printer thing, since OpenOffice has a button to save something as a PDF. Thank again, you guys are great as usual.

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