Criminal history questions on applications: what to answer
When employers can ask about a conviction, what the checkbox does with your answer, and the exact wording to type - including for a Warehouse Associate role.
Nathan Cole · · 10 minApplications Editor
Nathan Cole
Nathan explains what the application form is actually checking - screening questions, applicant tracking systems, and how many applications it really takes.
Nathan Cole · · 10 min
Should you apply to the same company twice? What the ATS does
Yes, with two exceptions. What Greenhouse and Workday do when your name appears twice, and which second application gets auto-rejected by a counter.
Nathan Cole · · 9 min
What a knockout question is, and how to spot one
A knockout question is a screening question wired to an automatic reject rule. Here is what fires it, which systems run it, and how to spot one on the form.
Nathan Cole · · 9 min
Switching industries: what to put in the experience section
Keep the jobs and titles you actually held, and rewrite what sits underneath. Here is what a form stores, and what changes between two industries.
Nathan Cole · · 9 min
What is your notice period? What happens to your answer
Give a date or a number of weeks, not a paragraph. Here is which field your notice period lands in, when it can reject you, and what to write.
Nathan Cole · · 9 min
How long does a job search take in 2026?
The median unemployed American has been looking for 11.4 weeks. Here is what that number counts, what it leaves out, and why it varies by job.
Nathan Cole · · 10 min
"No longer under consideration": what actually happened
The status means your application left the pipeline for one job. Here is who moved it, when, and how to tell a knockout rule from a closed requisition.
Nathan Cole · · 10 min
"Why do you want to work here?" on an application form
The free-text box cannot auto-reject you in Greenhouse or Workday. Here is what it is really checking, and a four-sentence answer you can adapt.
Nathan Cole · · 9 min
Why you have to retype your resume into the application form
You uploaded the PDF and the form still wants your job titles. Here is what the parser takes, what it never had, and how to stop fixing it every time.
Nathan Cole · · 9 min
When to follow up on a job application, and what to send
Send one follow-up, five to seven business days after applying, to a named person, and make it carry a fact rather than a status request. Here is the wording.
Nathan Cole · · 10 min
Voluntary self-identification questions: should you answer?
The race, gender, veteran and disability block at the end of a job application - who sees it, what it feeds, and why declining is not a neutral answer.
Nathan Cole · · 9 min
Career change at 40: how to fill in the application
No application form asks your age. It asks years of experience, current title and dates - here is what those fields check and what to write in them.
Nathan Cole · · 9 minThe best of the blog, once a week
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