20 common fields to prepare for.
This dictionary is built from observed field labels across Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, iCIMS, Taleo, and SmartRecruiters. Field labels are employer-configurable, so the exact wording varies — but the underlying data each field collects is consistent.
| # | Field | Category | Required? | Knockout? | Control | Common confusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Contact | Always | No | Text input | Resume parser may pre-fill; check for typos. | |
| 2 | First / given name | Contact | Always | No | Text input | Workday splits first/last; Lever often asks for full name only. |
| 3 | Last / family name | Contact | Always | No | Text input | Same as above. |
| 4 | Phone | Contact | Usually | No | Tel input | Workday may add Phone Type and country-format rules. |
| 5 | Address / location | Contact | Often | No | Text / dropdown / geocode | SmartRecruiters uses geocoded dropdown; Ashby asks for Candidate location. Geocoded dropdowns reject valid city names. |
| 6 | Resume / CV upload | Resume | Usually | No | File input | Greenhouse upload max ~100 MB, parse max ~2.5 MB. Parser may fail on two-column or image-based PDFs. |
| 7 | Cover letter | Resume | Usually optional | No | File or textarea | Additional information is not always a cover letter. Do not confuse the two. |
| 8 | Links / LinkedIn / portfolio | Links | Optional | No | Text input | Lever has dedicated link fields; Workday may collapse them into Websites. |
| 9 | Employer / company (work history) | Experience | Long forms | No | Text input | Re-typed even after resume upload on Workday/Taleo. Parser often misplaces. |
| 10 | Job title (work history) | Experience | Long forms | No | Text input | Parser often misplaces; dates detach on Workday. |
| 11 | Work dates | Experience | Long forms | No | Date picker / text | Strict MM/YYYY expectations. Present/Current handling varies by ATS. |
| 12 | Work description | Experience | Optional | No | Textarea | Used for keyword matching, especially Taleo. Generic descriptions hurt ranking. |
| 13 | School / institution | Education | Long forms | No | Dropdown / text | Ashby standardizes school names at submit. Misspellings fail. |
| 14 | Degree / field of study | Education | Varies | No | Dropdown / text | Workday/Ashby use dropdowns; misspellings fail. |
| 15 | Graduation date | Education | Often optional | No | Date picker | Some jurisdictions restrict asking education dates (age discrimination proxy). |
| 16 | GPA | Education | Optional / rare | No | Text input | Mostly entry-level only. Leave blank if >3 years out of school. |
| 17 | Work authorization | Eligibility | Usually | Yes | Radio / dropdown | Wording flips the honest answer for OPT/STEM OPT holders. See the sponsorship guide. |
| 18 | Visa / sponsorship | Eligibility | Usually | Yes | Radio / dropdown | Now or in the future collapses multi-timeline reality into a binary. See the sponsorship guide. |
| 19 | Salary expectations | Screening | Varies | Sometimes | Text / number / dropdown | Optional vs numeric vs dropdown each need a different answer. Avoid placeholders and review the unit. See the salary guide. |
| 20 | EEO self-identification | Self-ID | Voluntary (legally) | No (by law) | Radio / dropdown | Voluntary-but-required paradox: form may block submit without a selection. Decline option not always visible. See the EEO guide. |
How many fields each ATS asks — and how long it takes.
The difference between a 30-second Easy Apply and a 35-minute Workday application is the number of fields. Here is the field count and typical fill time for each major ATS.
| ATS | Avg. fields | Pages | Typical time |
|---|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn Easy Apply | 4–12 | 1 | 30–60 sec |
| Indeed Quick Apply | 4–8 | 1 | ~45 sec |
| Lever | 8–20 | 1 | 4–7 min |
| Ashby | ~10 | 1 | 5–8 min |
| Greenhouse | 15–30 | 1–2 | 6–9 min |
| SmartRecruiters | 10–25 | 1–2 | 5–15 min |
| iCIMS | 15–40 | 2–4 + iForms | 10–20 min |
| Workday | 73 (57–89) | 5–7 wizard | 22–35 min |
| Taleo | 20–50+ | 5–7 | 25–45 min |
Workday is the outlier.
Workday averages 73 fields across a 5–7 page wizard. The same 15–20 core fields recur on every application, but Workday requires you to re-enter them because its parser often fails to extract them from your resume. Across a 100-application search, that repetition alone costs 25–40 hours of pure re-typing.
The most repeated fields — and why re-typing is the problem.
From first-party field notes on observed applications, these are the fields that recur most often. Each one is re-typed manually 86.7% of the time.
| Field | Share of applications |
|---|---|
| 60.0% | |
| Phone | 52.5% |
| Resume upload | 52.5% |
| Open questions | 42.5% |
| Family name | 37.5% |
| Given name | 32.5% |
| Salary expectations | 27.5% |
| Years of experience | 25.0% |
| Current compensation | 25.0% |
| Notice period | 25.0% |
Email appears on 60% of applications. Phone and resume upload on 52.5%. Open questions on 42.5%. These are the fields where autofill saves the most time — and where manual re-typing introduces the most errors.
Knockout fields: a wrong answer ends your application.
Three fields are knockout fields on most US applications: work authorization, visa sponsorship, and salary expectations. A wrong answer auto-rejects you instantly. Here is how each ATS implements the knockout mechanism.
| ATS | Knockout mechanism |
|---|---|
| Greenhouse | Auto-Reject rules on custom questions |
| Workday | Questionnaire answers map to calculated fields, then condition rules end the application |
| Lever | Automation workflows auto-archive an application when the answer meets a condition |
| iCIMS | Screening Questions Library has a Do Not Qualify checkbox per answer |
| Taleo | Disqualification Questions block processes the answer and can send the candidate to a modified thank-you page |
| SmartRecruiters | Per-question-set knock-out configuration on each answer |
A screening rule depends on the employer’s configuration.
An employer can configure an answer to trigger rejection. That does not mean every employer uses the same rules or that we know what share of rejections they cause. Read the question carefully and answer truthfully. Greenhouse documents one such mechanism.
How to answer knockout fields
- Work authorization: Answer honestly. If you are on OPT/STEM OPT, you are authorized to work — but the wording matters. See the sponsorship guide.
- Visa sponsorship: "Now or in the future" is a binary question about a multi-timeline reality. Answer based on whether you will ever need sponsorship, not just today. See the sponsorship guide.
- Salary expectations: Research the market range first. Entering a placeholder is not a useful answer, and an employer may screen for its budget. See the salary expectations guide.
Fields that cause the most candidate errors.
Highest-friction fields
- Salary expectations — candidates do not know whether to leave it blank, enter a range, or a single number. Placeholders like $0 or 999 auto-reject.
- Work authorization / sponsorship — "now or in the future" forces a binary answer on a multi-timeline reality. OPT/STEM OPT holders get filtered as if they need sponsorship today.
- EEO self-identification — voluntary by law, but forms mark it required and may hide the decline option.
- Resume re-entry — uploading a resume then re-typing work history and education because the parser fails. Two-column resumes are flattened.
- Work history dates — parsers detach dates from titles. "Present" / "Current" handling varies by ATS.
- Additional information / Message to hiring manager — candidates confuse it with a cover letter or type something generic.
- Location / address — geocoded dropdowns reject valid city names. Workday requires Country before State format.
- How did you hear about us? — long dropdown, sometimes required, sometimes with no matching source.
New and emerging fields in 2025–2026.
| Field | What it collects |
|---|---|
| AI-use disclosure | Ontario (since Jan 1, 2026) and Illinois/Colorado require employers to disclose AI used to screen, assess, or select applicants. May appear as a posting notice or consent field. |
| Pay transparency / salary range | EU Pay Transparency Directive and US state laws (CA, CO, NY, WA, IL, MA) require posted ranges. ATS fields increasingly ask candidates to confirm expected compensation against the posted band. |
| Work-location preference | In-office / hybrid / remote, sometimes with conditional questions or location radius. See the RTO location fields guide. |
| Pronouns | Becoming a standard optional field on Lever and modern ATSs. |
| GDPR / privacy consent | Explicit consent to process and retain data, especially in Greenhouse (data_compliance) and SmartRecruiters APIs. |
How to answer each field category.
Contact info
- Keep a master profile with your exact name, email, phone, and location.
- Copy from the master profile, not from memory. Typos in email or phone are the most common reason a recruiter cannot reach you.
Work history and education
- Do not rely on the parser. Verify every employer, title, and date after upload.
- Use MM/YYYY format. For current roles, use "Present" only if the ATS accepts it; otherwise use the current month.
- Keep descriptions keyword-aligned with the JD — Taleo uses them for ranking.
Work eligibility (knockout fields)
- Answer honestly. A wrong answer to get past the filter creates legal and payroll problems later.
- See the sponsorship guide for scenario-specific answer scripts.
Screening questions
- Salary: research the range first. Use the salary picker for a defensible number.
- Start date: answer with your actual notice period, not "immediately" unless it is true.
- Relocation: answer honestly. A "Yes" to get past the filter wastes everyone's time.
EEO self-identification
- Legally voluntary. You can decline. If the form blocks submit without a selection, look for "Decline to self-identify" — it may be at the bottom of the dropdown.
- See the EEO self-identification guide for the full decision framework.
Sources and limitations.
Sources
- First-party field notes from observed applications across Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, iCIMS, Taleo, SmartRecruiters.
- Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, iCIMS, SmartRecruiters public API schemas and live career pages (2025–2026).
- Enhancv recruiter study (n=25, 2025) for knockout question prevalence.
- Greenhouse auto-reject documentation for employer-configured answer rules; it does not provide a universal rejection rate.
- Chief of Staff Asia (n=25 U.S. recruiters, Sept–Oct 2025) for the 30% visa filter statistic.
- Ontario AI disclosure law (Jan 1, 2026); Illinois, Colorado AI hiring laws.
- EU Pay Transparency Directive; CA SB 642, CO EPEWA, NY, WA, IL pay transparency laws.
What this research cannot prove.
Field labels are employer-configurable, so the exact wording varies by tenant. The field counts and fill times are from observed applications and third-party estimates, not from a comprehensive audit of every employer configuration. The 86.7% manual re-typing figure is from first-party field notes on a sample of observed applications, not from a randomized study. The knockout mechanisms are documented in ATS vendor help docs but may differ by employer configuration.