Why the system matters
When you click Apply on a company's careers page, you're usually filling in a form run by an applicant tracking system (ATS). The company chooses the questions, but the system decides the shape: one page or several, whether you need an account, and how your resume is read. Knowing which one you're on tells you how long it'll take and where the traps are.
You can tell from the address: boards.greenhouse.io or job-boards.greenhouse.io is Greenhouse, jobs.lever.co is Lever, and myworkdayjobs.com is Workday. Ashby (jobs.ashbyhq.com) and SmartRecruiters are also common.
Greenhouse
A single page, no account needed. It usually asks for your name, email, phone, resume and an optional cover letter, then a LinkedIn or website field and the company's own questions: work authorisation, sponsorship, notice period, salary expectations, how you heard about the role. US postings often end with a voluntary equal-opportunity section (gender, ethnicity, veteran and disability status) that's optional and kept separate from your application.
Tips: the custom questions are where most of the time goes, and many are required. Read each one; a "Yes/No" about sponsorship answered wrongly can end the application. Upload a PDF resume unless the posting asks otherwise.
Lever
Also a single page with no account. You upload a resume first and Lever fills in your name, email and phone from it; check those, because parsing mistakes are common. Then links (LinkedIn, portfolio, GitHub), the company's questions, and an "Additional information" box that works as a short cover letter.
Tips: that additional information box is optional but read. Two or three sentences on why this role, specifically, is a cheap way to stand out.
Workday
The longest of the three. You create an account on each company's Workday site, separately for every employer, then go through several steps: your details, your experience (Workday tries to fill this from your resume, and you correct each entry), application questions, voluntary disclosures, a self-identification section, then a review page.
Tips: use a password manager, because every employer means another account. Expect to fix the parsed work history by hand: dates, titles and descriptions often land in the wrong fields. Budget more time than for a one-page form, and save the confirmation email; Workday is where applications most often get stuck half-finished.
Ashby, SmartRecruiters and the rest
Ashby, popular with newer tech companies, works much like Greenhouse: one page, no account, resume upload, then the company's questions. SmartRecruiters often lets you apply with a LinkedIn profile or an uploaded resume and asks you to confirm the parsed details. Smaller systems vary, but nearly all of them fit one of two patterns: a single page you can finish in minutes, or a multi-step account-based flow like Workday's.
Before you start any form
- Have your resume as a PDF, named with your name, not "resume_final_v3".
- Keep a document with your standard answers: authorisation, sponsorship, notice period, salary range, links.
- Read the whole posting once more; custom questions often refer to it.
- Set aside the right amount of time: a few minutes for a one-page form, much longer for a first Workday application.
What all of them ask
Whatever the system, the same few questions come up again and again. Have your answers written down once:
- Are you legally authorised to work in this country?
- Will you now or in the future require visa sponsorship?
- Your notice period or earliest start date.
- Salary expectations, sometimes as a number with no range allowed.
- Willingness to relocate, and to work on-site or hybrid.
- Links: LinkedIn, portfolio, GitHub.
- How you heard about the role.
A resume that reads well in every system
All of these systems read text out of your resume, and plain layouts survive best: standard section headings (Experience, Education, Skills), one column, no text inside images, dates in a consistent format. Fancy two-column templates can come out jumbled in the parsed fields, which is harmless on a one-page form but costs real time on Workday.
Keep a record
After a dozen applications across three systems, it's easy to lose track of which email went where. Note the company, role, date, system and which version of your resume you sent. When a recruiter replies, you'll know exactly what they read.
Questions
How do I know which ATS a company uses?
Look at the web address of the job posting. Greenhouse uses greenhouse.io, Lever uses jobs.lever.co, Workday uses myworkdayjobs.com, and Ashby uses jobs.ashbyhq.com.
Why does Workday make me create an account for every company?
Each employer runs its own Workday site, so accounts aren't shared between them. A password manager makes this much less painful.
Should I upload a PDF or Word resume?
A PDF, unless the posting asks for Word. Both are read by these systems; a PDF keeps your layout exactly as you made it.
Are the diversity questions required?
In the US they're voluntary, and you can choose not to answer. They're kept separate from what the hiring team reviews.