| Area | What to know |
|---|---|
| ATS platforms | Mostly Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, or Ashby |
| Keyword match | Exact language/framework/tool names, not paraphrases |
| Length | One page under ~10 years of experience |
| Links | Active GitHub or portfolio, only if current |
01The ATS platforms tech companies actually run
Tech hiring is more concentrated on a handful of ATS platforms than most industries — which means the parsing behavior is fairly predictable once you know the pattern.
What this means practically: don't guess at the platform and format around it. Format for clean parsing in general — see our full ATS formatting rules guide — and it'll hold up across all of these.
02Universal tech resume conventions
Regardless of role — engineering, data, product — tech resumes are judged against a fairly consistent set of unwritten rules.
Weakens a tech resume
- Listing every language and tool ever touched
- Vague bullets: "worked on backend systems"
- A stale GitHub with no recent activity
- Buzzwords with no technical specificity
Strengthens a tech resume
- Prioritizing tools named in the specific posting
- Quantified impact: latency, scale, cost, users
- An active, relevant GitHub or portfolio link
- Specific technical nouns — the actual stack, named
Impact over responsibility
"Built a caching layer that reduced average API response time by 40%" scores and reads better than "Responsible for backend performance." Tech hiring managers are used to seeing metrics — a bullet without one stands out for the wrong reason.
03Find your role guide
The conventions above apply broadly, but the actual keywords an ATS scores you on are role-specific. Start here:
04Frequently asked questions
What ATS do most tech companies use?
Greenhouse and Lever are most common at startups and mid-size companies; larger tech employers often run Workday or Ashby. All parse for the same fundamentals.
Should I list every programming language and tool I've ever used?
No. Prioritize what's relevant to the specific posting — a long undifferentiated list reads as padding, not signal.
Does a tech resume need to be exactly one page?
One page is standard under roughly 10 years of experience. Beyond that, two pages is fine if every line still earns its place.
Should I include a link to my GitHub or portfolio?
Yes, if it's active and represents your current skill level. A stale one can do more harm than leaving it off.
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