Exporting your resume
PDF, DOCX or plain text - which to send where, and why what you see in the preview is exactly what comes out.
Three formats, and the right one depends entirely on who is receiving it.
| Format | Send it when |
|---|---|
| Almost always. It looks the same everywhere and cannot be accidentally edited. | |
| DOCX | A recruiter or agency asks for Word, which some genuinely require. |
| Plain text | Pasting into a form field that mangles formatting. |
The preview is not an approximation#
What you see in the builder is drawn from the same model the exporter uses, and it draws real pages
- not a scaled-down impression of them.
PDF#
The default, and correct for nearly every application. The text is real text - selectable, and extractable by a parser - not an image of text, which is what breaks the ATS check most often.
DOCX#
Send it when asked. Two things to expect:
- Word may re-flow it slightly. A different machine with different fonts can shift a line.
- It is editable, and agencies sometimes do edit it - stripping your contact details before passing it to a client. That is normal in that market and a reason to keep your own copy.
Check the DOCX before sending it if the layout matters.
Plain text#
No formatting at all. Its use is narrow but real: application forms with a "paste your resume" box that destroy anything richer.
The cover letter exports separately#
If your document has a Letter section, it is exported as its own file rather than appended to the resume - see sections and entries.
Naming the file#
The filename is the first thing a recruiter sees in a folder of two hundred.
Priya-Sharma-Backend-Engineer.pdf beats resume_final_v3.pdf. Include your name - a file called
resume.pdf is unfindable the moment it is downloaded.
Keep what you sent#
Export it and keep the file. That version is what you will be interviewed against; the resume in the builder will have moved on.
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