The fastest way to start with an existing resume is to import your resume rather than retype it. Workplacea reads your PDF or Word file, rebuilds it as structured, editable content, and then — this is the part most builders skip — shows you exactly what it extracted next to the original text so you can verify every field before anything is saved.
Supported formats and limits
- PDF (.pdf) — the most common case, including PDFs exported from Google Docs, Word, or other resume builders.
- Word (.docx) — modern Word documents. Older .doc files aren't supported; open them in Word and save as .docx first.
- LinkedIn exports — there's no dedicated LinkedIn button, but LinkedIn's "Save to PDF" option on your profile produces a PDF you can upload like any other. Expect to tidy the result, since LinkedIn's export formats sections in its own way.
Two hard rules: files must be 5 MB or under, and the file must contain real text. A scanned resume — a photo of paper saved as PDF — has no text layer to extract, so it will import mostly empty. Your file is parsed once and not stored; after the import completes, the file itself is gone and only the structured resume you approved remains.
Step-by-step import walkthrough
- From the dashboard, select "+ New resume", then "Upload existing". (If your dashboard is empty, the "Upload existing" card is already on screen.)
- In the "Upload a resume" dialog, drag and drop your file onto the dropzone, or click it to browse. You'll see the note confirming the rules: PDF or Word, max 5 MB, parsed once and not stored.
- Your file appears below the dropzone with its name and size. If you grabbed the wrong one, remove it and pick again.
- Select "Import". A short progress sequence runs: "Reading file", "Extracting your details", then "Double-checking against the original".
- The review screen opens, titled "Check what we found". Nothing has been saved yet.
If you see "Only PDF and Word (.docx) files are supported", the file has a different extension — export a proper PDF or .docx and retry. If you see the 5 MB message, the file is usually oversized because of embedded photos or scan images; re-export without them.
What the review screen shows you
The review is a side-by-side comparison. On the left, "From your file" shows the raw text extracted from your document. On the right, "What we extracted" shows the structured result: contact fields, summary, each experience entry with its dates and bullets, skills, education, projects, and certifications.
At the top you'll see one of two banners:
- "Everything we extracted matched your original wording" — the parser's output was verified against the source text with no discrepancies.
- "Double-check these before you continue" — a list of specific warnings, such as a date it couldn't pin down or a section it wasn't sure about. Read these; they point at exactly the fields most likely to need a correction.
Contact fields (name, headline, email, phone, location) are editable right on the review screen. When you're satisfied, select "Looks right — open in editor" to save and start editing, or "Discard" to throw the whole import away — discarding leaves no trace, since the file was never stored.
The five fields to verify first
Parsers fail in predictable places. Check these in order:
- Your name and email. Headers with decorative layouts sometimes mix name fragments with contact details.
- Dates on every role. Confirm each start and end month landed on the right job, and that your current role shows as present.
- Role and company boundaries. The classic failure is two jobs merged into one, or one job split in two — usually caused by unusual date placement in the original.
- Bullets under the right role. Scan that each achievement sits under the job it belongs to.
- The skills list. Skills formatted in columns or graphic bars in the source often arrive incomplete.
Everything is fixable in the editor afterward, but two minutes here saves ten later — and the score report will also flag missing dates and thin sections once you're in.
Why some resumes import imperfectly
It's almost always the source layout, not the content. Text extraction reads a file in the order the file stores it, which for multi-column designs, text boxes, and tables is often not the order a human reads. Heavily designed resumes from graphic templates are the most common rough imports; plain single-column documents come through nearly perfectly. This is the same mechanics that applicant tracking systems wrestle with — how resume parsing works covers the pipeline in depth, and it's a good argument for keeping your working resume in a simple layout.
If your import came through garbled or with sections misplaced, fixing resume import issues diagnoses each failure pattern and its remedy.
Bad import or fresh start: how to decide
A quick rule: on the review screen, estimate the fix time. If the warnings are few and the experience entries look mostly right, accept and clean up in the editor — usually under ten minutes. If the parse lost whole sections, merged several jobs, or produced gibberish (typical for scanned or design-heavy files), discard and choose "Start from scratch" instead, keeping your old resume open in another window to copy from. Retyping a resume takes 20–30 minutes; untangling a truly bad parse can take longer and leaves more room for missed errors.
Frequently asked questions
Is my uploaded file stored anywhere?
No. The file is parsed once, in a single request, and is not stored. What persists is only the structured resume you approve on the review screen — and if you select "Discard", nothing persists at all.
Why does import need an internet connection when the rest of the editor works offline?
Extraction and mapping run on the server with AI assistance, so import requires the backend to be reachable. Everything after the review — editing, scoring, templates, export — works without it.
Can I import multiple resumes?
The free tier includes one resume plus one tailored variant, so a second import needs the first resume deleted or a paid plan. Guest mode follows the same limits.
My PDF imported almost empty. What happened?
It's very likely an image-based PDF — a scan or screenshot with no text layer. Test it: open the PDF and try to select text with your cursor. If you can't, neither can any parser. Recreate the file from the original document, or paste your text into the editor manually.
If you get stuck
Run the import from the editor and see how far the review screen gets you — most problems are visible and fixable right there. For anything that still looks wrong, email contact@workplacea.com with a description of what the review screen showed, and we'll help you sort it out.