I cannot begin to tell you how proficient I am in Microsoft Word
I cannot tell you how <i>un</i>productive I am in Microsoft Word. I use LaTeX, often in overleaf, often natively in linux, often on MacOS. Naturally, the latter has a Word version available in it and as a scientist at the interface of physics and biology&#x2F;medicine I (un)fortunately have plenty of experience in both. Some of my colleagues carte-blanch refuse to try TeX (interestingly, I&#x27;ve never had a doctor refuse to write in Overleaf with me -- only biochemists).<p>Writing a paper in Word is like pulling nasal hair out through the back of my throat.<p>It&#x27;s eminently possible to do it. Millions of people around the world do. Yet it is death by a thousand tiny, frustrating cuts. From the fact that the keyboard shortcuts are not those of the rest of the operating system (on MacOS <i>or</i> Linux on the online app -- e.g. ctrl+shift+arrow keys to highlight text works differently in Word to every other OS) to the fact that opening the paper, writing something, closing it, and re-opening it <i>doesn&#x27;t necessarily get you the same bloody document</i>. I was editing something last night (from a biologist -- who had done MRI on Burmese pythons – alas the reconstruction was done in matlab and not python!) and each time I saved, my &quot;tracked changes&quot; went from displaying my name to &quot;Author&quot;. I forget the number of times I&#x27;ve seen &quot;Unknown field code changed&quot; on the right hand side. If you want to work with references from many people, forget about it. LaTeX has <i>literally none of these problems</i>. Sure, it has a lot of <i>other</i> problems, but <i>none of these ones</i>. I just <i>can&#x27;t stand</i> using Word; it is inconsistent, slow, and incorrectly second-guesses you. I&#x27;m <i>not</i> saying that everyone and their grandparents should use LaTeX, but the disparity -- and the comparative rareness of alternatives, outside of inDesign and Quark in the professional publishing scene -- does deeply worry me. Office is one of those areas where the Microsoft strangehold is strongest. And it&#x27;s objectively a bad experience!<p>Seeing &quot;Proficient with Microsoft Office&quot; on a CV for me is a bit of a red flag; highlighting another job skill is probably a better use of space, at the very least.