This is why I use signed PDF’s. If a recruiter or manager asks for a docx, I move on.

You’re only going to ever get a read only version.

All PDF security can be stripped by freely available software in ways that allow subsequent modifications without restriction, except the kind of PDF security that requires an unavailable password to decrypt to view, but in that case viewing isn’t possible either.

Subsequent modifications would of course invalidate any digital signature you’ve applied, but that only matters if the recipient cares about your digital signature remaining valid.

Put another way, there’s no such thing as a true read-only PDF if the software necessary to circumvent the other PDF security restrictions is available on the recipient’s computer and if preserving the validity of your digital signature is not considered important.

But sure, it’s very possible to distribute a PDF that’s a lot more annoying to modify than your private source format. No disagreement there.

Care to share your resume? I've built PDF scanning tech before the rise of llms, OCR at the very least will defeat this.

Read-only... Until I ctrl-p in Firefox.