Which ATS does this company use? How to tell from the job link

Most companies do not build their own job application forms. They use an applicant tracking system (ATS) such as Workday, Greenhouse or Lever, and the application page is that system's form with the company's logo on it. Knowing which one you are on tells you whether you need an account, how long the form will take and where you will see updates later.

How to tell

Look at the address of the application page. Click Apply first: the company's careers page is often their own site, but the application usually opens on the system's domain. The table below lists the usual patterns.

Check for a form placed inside the company's site. Some companies show the application inside their own page. Greenhouse jobs shown this way have gh_jid= in the link; Stripe and Airbnb list their jobs like this. Your application still goes to Greenhouse.

Read the footer and the confirmation email. Hosted job pages often name the system at the bottom, such as "Powered by Greenhouse", and confirmation emails often come from the system's domain.

The common systems

We have field-by-field guides for Workday, Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby, and iCIMS, Taleo and SuccessFactors.

What changes from one system to another

Accounts. Workday and Taleo create a separate account at each company, and many iCIMS and SuccessFactors sites do too. Use the same email everywhere and a password manager, and sign in rather than registering again when you return to a company: a second account can create a duplicate candidate record.

The length of the form. One-page systems (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workable) take a few minutes. Workday, Taleo, iCIMS and SuccessFactors often ask you to re-enter your work history and education field by field, which is where most of the time goes.

Where you see updates. Workday, iCIMS and Taleo have a candidate page on each company's site where your applications are listed with a status. Greenhouse has an optional MyGreenhouse profile that some employers share a status with. Lever and Ashby send everything by email. Our guide to application status meanings explains the labels.

What does not change

Every system reads your resume into a record. The same advice holds everywhere: one column, standard headings such as Experience and Education, and a PDF or DOCX file with selectable text. A layout that confuses one reader usually confuses the others; see why two-column resumes cause problems, or check your file with the free ATS checker.

Knock-out questions exist on all of them. Questions about work authorisation, location or a required qualification can filter an application before anyone reads it, whichever system the company uses. Answer them carefully and truthfully.

No system gives your resume a universal score. Recruiters search and filter candidates; the systems do not share one standard "ATS score" across companies. Our guide to how ATS systems rank resumes explains what actually happens.

Do you need a different resume for each system?

No. You need a resume that reads cleanly in all of them, and then a version tailored to each job, which matters far more than the system. What differs is the form around the resume, not what the recruiter looks for.

How Shortlist handles these systems

Shortlist recognises the job pages and application forms of most of the systems above. It scores how well a job fits your profile, writes a tailored resume, and fills the application form from your profile, including multi-page forms like Workday's. It stops before Submit, so you check and send every application yourself.

FAQ

How can I find out which ATS a company uses before applying?

Open any of its job postings and click Apply. The address of the application page, the footer of the page or the sender of the confirmation email usually names the system.

Does the ATS reject resumes automatically?

Not on its own. Applications are filtered by knock-out questions the employer sets, such as work authorisation, and by how recruiters search and sort candidates. A resume the system cannot read well is less likely to come up in those searches.

Why does the careers page look different from the application form?

The careers page is usually the company's own website, while the application form belongs to their applicant tracking system. Clicking Apply moves you from one to the other, sometimes in a new tab.

Why do some systems make me create an account for every company?

Workday, Taleo and similar systems run a separate site for each employer, with its own candidate records, so an account at one company does not carry over to another.