Are creative section headings okay in Greenhouse?

They are risky. Greenhouse relies on a dictionary of standard headings; creative labels can leave your text in an unstructured blob even though it parses as text.

Do startups using Greenhouse filter on keywords?

Yes. Many use Greenhouse's structured fields and search to filter on hard skills before humans review — keyword alignment matters even at small companies.

Greenhouse

Greenhouse ATS Resume GuideFree — No Signup Required

Greenhouse powers hiring at Stripe, Airbnb, and thousands of tech companies. Its parser is better than legacy systems — but it is still sensitive to structure.

Last updated August 11, 2026

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Quick Answer

Greenhouse parses well but is sensitive to non-standard section labels and graphics-heavy templates. Use a single-column, text-based resume with standard headings, and mirror the job description's stack keywords — engineering roles at Greenhouse companies run automated hard-skill filters before a human reviews anything.

How Greenhouse Parses Resumes

Standard sections (Experience, Education, Skills) extract reliably when labeled conventionally
Custom headings like 'My Journey' or 'Tech Arsenal' can fail to map to structured fields
Images, logos, and skill bars are ignored — plain text lists are required
Multi-column layouts risk interleaving skills into work history

Greenhouse-Specific Tips for Tech Applicants

Name the stack in Skills as plain text: Python, PostgreSQL, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes
Mirror JD terminology for required frameworks and platforms
Use standard bullet characters — custom symbols can garble extraction
Keep one page for mid-level roles, two for senior engineering

Before You Submit on Greenhouse

1Run a keyword scan against the specific job description
2Confirm section headings are standard
3Verify your resume reads top-to-bottom in a plain-text editor
4Re-scan the tailored version and target 75+

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Both work well when the PDF is real text (not a design-tool export). DOCX from Word parses very reliably.

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