How can you tell if a job uses Greenhouse?
Look at the address bar and the form. Greenhouse-hosted postings live on boards.greenhouse.io or job-boards.greenhouse.io. When a company embeds Greenhouse on its own careers site, the link usually carries a gh_jid= parameter, like example.com/jobs?gh_jid=123. Hosted job boards also show “Powered by Greenhouse” at the bottom.
If the link opens a single long page with your name, email, a resume upload, an optional cover letter and then a set of company questions, you are almost certainly on Greenhouse.
You can also paste the job link into a hiring system checker. It reads the same signals and tells you which system you are on before you start.
What does a Greenhouse application look like, step by step?
Most Greenhouse applications are one page. You upload a resume, Greenhouse uses it to fill your contact and work details, you check those fields, add a cover letter if there is a field for it, answer the company’s custom questions, and complete any voluntary demographic questions before you submit.
- Upload your resume. Greenhouse accepts .doc, .docx, .pdf, .rtf and .txt files.
- Check the autofilled fields. Greenhouse says its resume parsing “can make mistakes”, so read every field before moving on.
- Add a cover letter or paste one in if the field exists.
- Answer the custom questions. These are written by the employer and are often where screening happens (see the next section).
- Voluntary self-identification questions (for US equal opportunity reporting) come last and are optional.
After you submit you get a confirmation email. If you created a MyGreenhouse account, the application also shows up there.
How does Greenhouse screen your resume?
Greenhouse screens in two places: your answers and the recruiter’s review. On Plus and Pro plans, employers can set Auto-Reject rules that reject applicants based on answers to custom questions. Some employers also turn on Talent Matching, an AI match score that ranks but never advances or rejects anyone by itself.
Auto-Reject is the closest thing Greenhouse has to a hard filter. A typical rule says: if the answer to “Are you authorized to work in the US?” is No, reject. It does not read your resume to decide. It reads the questions. That makes those questions the most important part of the form.
Talent Matching (part of Greenhouse Real Talent) compares your application with the job’s requirements and assigns a match score. Greenhouse states it “does not automatically advance or reject candidates”. The employer decides which jobs use it, and where the employer allows it, you can opt out per application from MyGreenhouse.
After that, people take over. Recruiters review applications, and interviewers fill in scorecards against the role’s attributes. Clear, specific bullets that line up with the posting’s must-haves are what a human reviewer can check quickly.
How do I check my Greenhouse application status?
Sign in to MyGreenhouse at my.greenhouse.com with the email you applied with. Applications show as Active by default. You only see real updates if the hiring company chooses to share them. If an application says “Not sharing updates”, that company does not share status, and you need to ask them directly.
When a company does share status, an application turns Inactive after a rejection email is sent, or 4 days after the rejection if no email is scheduled. Greenhouse notes that candidates are not notified about this change, so Inactive is often the first sign of a no.
You can also move an application to Inactive yourself, but that only tidies your own view. It does not withdraw you. Greenhouse support will not share the status of any application, because each employer owns its own hiring data.
What resume format works best on Greenhouse?
Greenhouse’s own candidate FAQ says to upload a PDF for best results. Use a text-based PDF from Word or Google Docs, not a scan, with one column and standard headings like Experience, Education and Skills. Then check every autofilled field, because that parsed data is what recruiters search later.
- Keep dates in a consistent format, like Jan 2022 to Mar 2024, so tenure reads correctly.
- Use the posting’s own words for skills and tools where they are true for you. Recruiters search parsed text.
- Put the must-have skills in your first few bullets, backed by a number or outcome.
- Answer custom questions so they agree with your resume. A mismatch is the fastest way to lose a reviewer’s trust.