ATS · Part of ATS guide: how applicant tracking systems work
Workday vs Greenhouse vs Lever: What Actually Changes for Your Resume
By RedvicaUpdated October 1, 20266 min read
Job seekers often ask for the one format that "works with every ATS". There isn't a guaranteed one, but the differences between the major systems are narrower than most advice implies, and much of what circulates about Workday, iCIMS or Taleo is reported practice rather than vendor documentation. Here is what we can point to, what we can't, and a resume structure that holds up either way.
What's publicly documented
Greenhouse is unusually open. Its support pages document the accepted file types (.doc, .docx, .pdf, .rtf and .txt), a 2.5 MB limit for parsing, and the formatting problems that cause failed parses: columned layouts, tables, headers and footers, contact details in a header or text box, graphics and photos, image-only files, unclear sections and abbreviated titles (Greenhouse Support). Its support pages also describe full-text keyword search and application-question rules for auto-reject.
Lever, Workday, iCIMS and Taleo publish less detail aimed at applicants, and some documentation sits behind customer logins. Behaviour also varies by employer, because each company configures its own application forms and rules. So specific claims such as "Workday rejects all two-column resumes" or "Taleo can't read PDFs" are not something we can verify, and we don't repeat them.
Side by side
| System | Where you'll often see it | What we can say |
|---|---|---|
| Greenhouse | Tech companies and start-ups; links often contain greenhouse.io | Documented: supported formats, 2.5 MB parse limit, list of formatting problems, keyword search, auto-reject on question answers |
| Lever | Start-ups and mid-size companies; links often contain jobs.lever.co | Publishes help documentation for recruiters. Check it for parsing details instead of relying on rumours |
| Workday | Large enterprises; links often contain myworkdayjobs.com | Limited applicant-facing documentation. Applications can auto-fill fields from your resume that you then review (see our Workday guide), so a clean, simple layout still pays off |
| iCIMS | Large and mid-size employers; links often contain icims.com | Behaviour varies by employer configuration |
| Taleo (Oracle) | Long-established enterprise systems; links often contain taleo.net | Behaviour varies by employer configuration |
How to find out which ATS an employer uses
Look at the address of the application page after you click Apply. Many employers use a hosted page whose domain names the system, for example boards.greenhouse.io, jobs.lever.co, a company name followed by myworkdayjobs.com, icims.com or taleo.net. If the application is on the company's own domain, you may not be able to tell, and that's fine.
One structure that survives all of them
You don't need five resumes. The documented parsing problems are almost all avoided by the same few choices, and these choices cost you little:
- One column, reading top to bottom.
- Plain section headings: Experience, Education, Skills.
- Name and contact details in the body, not in a header, footer or text box.
- Full job titles and company names, with one consistent date format.
- A text-based PDF or DOCX that is comfortably under 2.5 MB, with no text in images.
- Skills as plain words in a dedicated section and used in your bullets.
When platform-specific tweaks are worth it
Only make a platform-specific change if you know which system the employer uses and have a real reason to think it matters for that application. For example: if a Greenhouse application shows that your details didn't fill in after uploading, that is a sign that something in the file didn't parse, and simplifying the layout is the fix. If the employer's posting says "upload as .docx", do that.
What Redvica estimates, and what it doesn't
The Redvica resume checker shows a separate estimate for Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS and Taleo. Those estimates are produced by an AI model using documented and commonly reported parser behaviour. We don't run your file through the vendors' software, so treat them as a way to spot risky formatting, not as official results. See the methodology.