Best foot forward

September 30, 2008 7:39 AM

I just downloaded the trial version of MS Office 2007 because some companies prefer that resumes be made from MS Word. But I can't seem to find a resume template for it. Please help.

I have my resume in PDF format but some sites like Monster.com will only seem to take MS Word 2007. Other companies I would like to apply to have similar requirements. I have no experience with MS Office so if anyone could tell me the best way to write a resume using this software, I would appreciate it.

posted by Brandon1600 to work & money (7 comments total)

Office Button > New > scroll down to Resume and CVs under templates.

Why is your resume a pdf? What was it before it was converted to a pdf? You should have some kind of word processor document for this prior to it being a pdf. Also, a friend with Adobe Acrobat Professional or Standard could take that PDF and turn it into a word file, but the formatting will be all weird.
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:50 AM on September 30, 2008

As a side -- when you upload your resume as a Word document to Monster make sure you do some research as to what Monster uses it for -- specifically you want to have your resume high in language and keywords that are specific to your industry. They are compiled and employers have access through a search interface.............
posted by SirStan at 7:51 AM on September 30, 2008

Not exactly what you're looking for, but I'd strongly advise against using a template to write your resume. Certainly use it to get an idea of what kind of information you should include, but don't actually use it for formatting. Why? Because it makes you look unoriginal and uninvolved. If you're reading a few dozen/hundred resumes a week, as recruiters often are, seeing yet another cookie-cutter resume is less impressive than seeing someone who took the time to actually write their own document.
posted by valkyryn at 8:37 AM on September 30, 2008

I would be careful about using only Word 2007. A lot of companies still use 2003, and the default Word 2007 format is not compatible with 2003 (without a download)
posted by waylaid at 8:53 AM on September 30, 2008

Also its worth mentioning that the trial version is only good for 30 days. If you need a permanent solution I'd just download Open Office and use that going forward. It can open and save .doc format files.
posted by damn dirty ape at 8:55 AM on September 30, 2008

waylaid: Under the Save As menu in the Office Logo button, there is a "Word 97-2003 Document" option. As long as you make sure to save in this format, there won't be any problems.
posted by niles at 9:29 AM on September 30, 2008

In the trial version of Word 2007 I used earlier this year, I was blocked from saving any files I'd created or opened. Documents could only be created and/or modified. You might want to check whether you can save a document at all first before you go to the time of drafting a full resume.
posted by tyrantkitty at 9:59 AM on September 30, 2008