Original proof · field map
ATS application field guide: the sections that keep coming back
Applicant tracking systems look different in the header logo. The questions rhyme. If you have filled Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, or Ashby more than twice, you have already met this map: create an account, upload a resume that gets parsed badly, re-type work history, answer legal and EEO prompts, then hit a wall of employer-specific questions.
This page is HireConcierge’s working field map of those repeating sections. Use it to prepare a packet before you start, or to understand what a concierge is actually doing on a supported ATS flow.
Methodology (read this first)
Last reviewed 2 September 2026. We classified sections that recur on public career-site implementations of Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, and Ashby — the platforms HireConcierge already discusses in product copy as in-scope when the flow is supported. This is an expert review of form structure, not a survey with a sample size, not a benchmark of pass rates, and not a ranking of vendors.
What we did not do: scrape applicant data, publish anyone’s answers, invent completion-time statistics, or claim every tenant uses every module. Employers turn questionnaires on and off. A hospital Workday is not a startup Greenhouse. If a section is listed here, expect it often — not always.
Sibling proof asset on screening after submit: The ATS Ghosting Report. That page is about silent rejection. This one is about the form itself.
The repeating sections
Account and session
Email, password, sometimes SSO, sometimes a separate “candidate home.” Sessions expire. Duplicate profiles from a prior attempt are common on Workday-class sites. If verification is in play, the code has to land while the session is still alive — which is why a dedicated apply mailbox matters for concierge software, and an open inbox matters if you DIY.
Resume upload and the hostile parse
You upload a PDF. The ATS extracts structured fields. The extraction is often wrong: missing dates, split companies, skills pulled from a header. Then the form asks you to confirm the parse. Candidates who only “Easy Apply” never see this loop. Candidates who finish the employer site live in it. Tailor the file to the posting and expect to re-assert facts in boxes. More: AI resume tailoring.
Contact and profile
Legal name, preferred name, phone, address or city, LinkedIn URL. Phone is not decorative when SMS verification is enabled. International formats and extensions still break some tenants. Keep one canonical phone you will actually answer.
Work history (re-typed even after parse)
Employer name, title, location, start/end month, description, sometimes hours or supervisor. Required month precision is why “2022–present” on a resume is not enough. Contract and DBA names should match how the company might search you. This block is the longest stretch of most applications and the first place a session timeout hurts.
Education and credentials
School, degree, field, dates. Some flows want GPA; many do not. Licenses and certifications appear as a separate module on healthcare and finance tenants. Do not list credentials you cannot produce. Do not let a parser invent a degree from a course title.
Work authorization and eligibility
Sponsorship, citizenship or work-authorization category, sometimes export-control or government questions. These are legal answers, not keyword opportunities. Decide them in your packet, then reuse. Wrong answers here are worse than a slow application.
EEO and self-identification
Gender, race/ethnicity, veteran, disability — typically optional in U.S. flows, used for reporting. “Prefer not to say” is a real option on most of these. HireConcierge does not use EEO answers as marketing content and does not treat them as skills evidence.
Questionnaires and custom questions
This is where tenants diverge. Salary, notice period, “why this company,” tool self-ratings, shift availability, portfolio URLs. Greenhouse and Lever often feel shorter until a hiring manager adds ten required short answers. Workday questionnaires can span pages. A concierge can pre-fill facts you already stored; it should not hallucinate a cover-letter paragraph you would not send. Edge-case questions still need a human. That is why HireConcierge defaults to approval before send.
Review, e-sign, and confirmation
A summary page, sometimes an electronic signature or attestation that everything is true. Confirmation email is not the same as “a human saw you.” Screening happens after this map ends — see the Ghosting Report. If software reports success, it should mean the employer portal accepted the submit, not that LinkedIn showed a button click.
What this map is for — and what it is not
For applicants: a packing list. For HireConcierge: the shape of work Aria is built to do on supported portals (Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby where the flow is supported). For everyone: a reminder that “ATS help” that never mentions these sections is usually Easy Apply theater.
This map does not mean every field is automated, every employer is in coverage, or that finishing the form guarantees an interview. We do not publish completion-rate dashboards here because we will not invent them.
FAQ
Is this a survey of every employer? No. It is a field map of repeating sections on commonly deployed Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, and Ashby career-site flows. Employers configure extra questions. Treat this as a preparation model, not a census.
Does HireConcierge support every field on every portal? No. Capability is stated as supported ATS flows. Exotic or one-off forms can fail or complete only in part. A fake confirmation is worse than an honest miss.
How is this different from the ATS Ghosting Report? The Ghosting Report explains silent screening after you apply. This guide maps the form you have to finish before screening even starts.
Use this map on real employer portals — try Aria free, no credit card.
Free trial, no credit card