Do you have a moment to talk about LaTeX?
this post was submitted on 11 May 2026
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me_irl
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As a recent LaTeX convert, I'm never going back.
Write it in VSCode with html & css, open in browser, print to file
If you provide your CV as an editable word editor document instead of a PDF then there's no way you're making it to the interview round if I'm the AI assigned to screen your application.
So many times in my early career, recruiters specified that my resume had to be in .doc rather than .pdf. One of them even said that it was so they could remove any identifying factors before sending it to their clients.
I wish I'd been canny enough to recognize that as a red flag.
edit: I've since written a script to generate a pdf resume from a yaml file. Good luck with that, recruiters!
3rd party recruiters do this to try and lure clients (organizations that are hiring) in. They also do it to pretend you already work at the consulting firm (if the recruiter is for the consulting firm) and other shady stuff.
You are probably better off not working with someone who is editing your resume.
Higher quality 3rd party recruiters don’t do this stuff.
It’s bests to stick with pdfs
Oh, I know.
Now.
But how do I render my LaTeX to a word document?
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Print out the LaTeX
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Scan the printed file back in and save as a PDF
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Export the PDF to a .png
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Import the .png to Word
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?????
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Profit
that script sounds hot..
I had it stored on a git VM I've long since deleted, but it wasn't complex. If you're genuinely interested, I would be happy to collaborate with you.
This is my first step of weeding out candidates. The software we used would render the PDF for a first pass, but if it had a .doc, then you'd have to download it, and open it on your machine. I tried to convince the HR department to disable .doc uploads for security risks but I guess it was a global setting and would have applied to sales hires too.
Also I'm not paying for Microsoft Windows 11 Copilot AI O365, or whatever it's currently called, just so I can send a CV.
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In Germany we ask back: Can you explain the gap in your company's history between 1933 and 1945?
Can you explain the gap between 1970-01-01 and 2013-05-06?
CMOS battery died.
What happened in 2013?
The company was founded
EVERYONE WAS ON VACATION!
Ok, now I am extremely concerned what you were doing during your gap.
I was creating a gap in my CV, that's what I was doing.
Are you applying to IBM or Hugo Boss?
Published. Document. Format.
I thought it was Perverted Document Format.
The P stands for Portable
Also, and a lot of people get this wrong, but the P is silent
Only when sitting, not standing.
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Unironically, the most incompetent and technically annoying file format to work with.
Annoying to edit, yeah, but it's a pretty good format for making sure no information on the page moves around.
My hypothesis is that Adobe Acrobat is so bad that people have started hating pdf.
Adobe Acrobat is so bad that people have started hating pdf
That's like 80% of it, as well as stuff that really doesn't need to be a PDF but someone decided it should be un-editable so the thing you needed from it actually doesn't work.
As someone who has had to work with PDFs from a technical perspective, PDF is hot mess of a file format. The fact it works at all is as much a testament to mankind's arrogance and stubborness as the city of Phoenix existing.
I work with pdfs as a designer and they've been pretty trustworthy, but I am now burdened with the knowledge that they are a mess behind the scenes.
Also: I painstakingly put all this information into LinkedIn, where you also posted the job req and your HR recruiter made contact. Please kindly fuck all the way off with making me re-enter all this data into your crummy HR database.
Thats why ISO 26300 is superior to all those propriatery formats.
ODF (Open Document Format) for those who don't want to search up "ISO 26300"
Never seen that as an allowable file format.
Because no one can make money selling editors for it.
Isn't that the truth.
no, they failed for not sending it as a PDF
That's some of those what the fuck do you need yo know that for questions.
Like why did you leave company ABC in 2011?!!
Or the whole, please let us spend 30 minutes reading your CV. Asking why you left every fucking company...
I wonder if they just don't read CVs beforehand and have no idea about how to conduct an interview.
YEAH I WORKED AT THE GAP BEFORE I WORKED AT HOT DOG ON A STICK.
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