Between 10 September and 18 October 2026 we traced ten Workday application sessions on eight employers’ career sites, from the job listing as far as the Review page, and checked listing or form pages on thirteen employers in total. Nothing was submitted. Employers configure their own forms, so treat every example as one employer’s setup, not a rule.
Before you start, gather four things.
A Workday application is a series of pages on the employer’s own career site, usually at an address ending in myworkdayjobs.com. Each employer runs its own site, so you sign in separately at each company. After you sign in, the site header shows Candidate Home, where that employer lists the applications you have made with them.
- One resume file. One employer’s upload accepted DOC, DOCX, HTML, PDF or TXT files up to 5MB and asked for the resume only, with no cover letter in that field.
- Exact job dates. Workday asks for the month and year each job started and ended, in separate boxes.
- Your school’s official name. School boxes search the employer’s own list, which may spell it differently from your resume.
- Your phone number without the country code. The country code goes in its own box.
If a password reset or an “account already exists” message stops you, read the Workday accounts and sign-in guide first.
Choose how to start the application.
After you press Apply, Workday shows a “Start Your Application” box. The wording we captured reads: choose an option to complete your application, and on the next page you will be required to create an account or log into your existing account.
| Option | What happens | Choose it when |
|---|---|---|
| Autofill with Resume | Adds an “Autofill with Resume” step. You upload one file, Workday reads it and pre-fills what it can, then you continue page by page. | Your resume is a simple, text-based file and you will check every field it fills. |
| Apply Manually | You type each page yourself. You still create an account or sign in first. | Your resume uses columns or tables, or a previous autofill garbled your job history. |
| Use My Last Application | Brings back what you saved in your last application to the same employer. | You applied to this employer before and that application was accurate. |
| Apply With LinkedIn | Offered by some employers only. It starts the application from your LinkedIn profile. | Your LinkedIn profile is current. Check every field it brings across. |
Three of the four start boxes we captured offered Apply With LinkedIn; one offered only the first three options. Whichever you pick, the account step comes next.
What Autofill with Resume filled when we tried it.
Choosing Autofill with Resume adds a step of its own. On one large manufacturer’s site the progress bar changed from five steps after sign-in to six: Autofill with Resume, My Information, My Experience, Application Questions, Voluntary Disclosures and Review. The upload page offered tips, such as putting contact details first and using plain section headings.
After the upload, Workday had filled the legal name, the country and the phone number. It left the address empty, and the form then reported that State was required. It also put the phone number into the number box with the +91 country code, the format that produced a phone error on three other employers’ sites. That employer’s My Experience page asked only for a resume and websites, so the parse had nothing more to fill.
Two more Autofill with Resume attempts, at an aerospace employer and an electronics employer, stopped at the account step. The lesson from all three: autofill can save typing on contact details, but its value depends on how much the employer’s form asks for. Check every filled box, especially phone, address and dates.
Use My Last Application worked differently. At an employer where we had applied before, it brought back the contact details, both jobs, education, eleven skills and two websites. It also brought back two job descriptions that had been saved with the same text twice. It reuses whatever you saved last time, including mistakes.
My Information, field by field.
This page used the same fields on three employers we checked, with small differences such as which address lines are required. The table covers what it asks and what to watch.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| How Did You Hear About Us? | A required search-and-select list at several employers. Pick the source that is true, such as the employer’s own careers site or a named job board. |
| Previously worked here? | Some employers ask whether you have worked for them or a subsidiary, including as a contractor. Answer for the whole company group they name. |
| Country / Territory | Set this first. It changes which address fields appear and whether local-script name fields show up. |
| Legal name and local name | Given Name(s) and Family Name are your legal name. “Local” name fields appear for some countries; leave them blank unless your name uses another script. |
| Address | Required fields vary by employer: one required State, another required Postal Code. Fill them even if your resume shows only a city. |
| Comes from the account you just created. Change it in the account, not on the form. | |
| Phone Device Type | Mobile, Home or similar. Required at some employers. |
| Country Phone Code | Choose your country here, for example India (+91). |
| Phone Number | Enter the national number only. Writing +91 or another country code in this box produced “Enter a valid format for Phone Number.” on three employers’ sites. |
| Phone Extension | For office extensions only. Leave it empty for a mobile number. |
If the page will not save, read the red “Errors Found” box at the top. The Workday errors guide lists each message we saw and how to clear it.
My Experience changes the most between employers.
One payments employer asked for every job, every school, skills, a resume and websites. Two others, a manufacturer and a software company, asked only for a resume file (one also asked for websites). Expect either.
- Work Experience: Job Title, Company, Location, an “I currently work here” box, From and To dates, and Role Description. Use Add for the first entry and Add Another for each one after.
- Dates: month and year boxes. A required From or To date left empty blocks the page.
- Education: School, Degree, Field of Study and years. School and Field of Study search the employer’s list.
- Skills: type a skill, then press Enter to search. Typing alone shows “No Items.” Workday’s catalog names skills its own way, for example “Structured Query Language (SQL)”.
- Resume/CV and Websites: check that the right file is attached. At one employer the file from the Autofill with Resume step was already there; at another, the page would not save until a resume was uploaded.
Read each job against your resume before you continue. Our PDF and DOCX parsing test found that two-column layouts can reorder sections, which is one reason parsed history goes wrong.
Application Questions and Voluntary Disclosures.
Application Questions are written by the employer. On the sites we checked they included whether you can legally work in the country, whether you will need visa sponsorship, a desired annual salary with the currency, a desired start date, whether relatives work at the company, and conflict-of-interest questions. Answer each one for this employer; do not copy an answer meant for another company.
Voluntary Disclosures ask about gender, ethnicity and veteran status, and some employers add a separate Self Identify step for disability. One employer also put its terms and conditions checkbox on this page. You can usually choose a “decline to answer” option; our self-identification guide explains each question.
Review, submit and find the application later.
The Review page shows every answer. Nothing is sent until you press Submit. Check names, phone, each job’s dates and description, education and the attached file, then submit and keep the confirmation.
Afterwards the application appears in that employer’s Candidate Home. If its status confuses you, the application status decoder explains Workday labels such as “In Progress” and “No Longer Under Consideration”. Workday has also announced a reusable Candidate Profile for early 2027; until your employer’s page offers it, expect a separate account at each company.
Workday application questions people ask.
It means Workday reads the resume file you upload and pre-fills parts of the application from it. It adds an extra step before My Information. What it fills depends on your file and on how the employer built the form, so every page still needs checking.
Use Autofill with Resume when your resume is a simple text-based PDF or Word file and you have time to check each field. Choose Apply Manually when your resume uses columns or tables, or when a previous attempt filled the wrong jobs or dates.
It reuses what you saved in your previous application to the same employer: contact details, work history, education, skills and links. It also reuses any mistakes, so read each entry before you continue.
Workday candidate accounts usually belong to one employer’s career site, so an account at one company does not sign you in at another. Workday has announced a reusable Candidate Profile, expected in early 2027.
Workday saves a page when you press Save and Continue. Anything you typed on a page you have not saved can be lost if you leave, so finish the page before taking a break.