How to fill out a Lever application form: a field-by-field guide for applicants

You clicked Apply on a job you want and landed on a Lever application. It's shorter than most: a resume upload, your name and contact details, a few links, maybe a box for "additional information," and — depending on the role — a handful of custom questions. There's an option to autofill from your resume or LinkedIn, and it got some of the fields close but not quite right.

Lever forms are deceptively quick. The short ones tempt you to fly through in two minutes; the ones with custom questions reward the opposite. Here's what each field does and how to handle it.

How Lever actually works

Lever is an applicant tracking system used by a lot of mid-size and growth-stage companies. When you apply on those companies' careers pages, you're often dropped onto a Lever-hosted form, even when it's branded with the company's own logo and colors.

Two things are worth understanding up front. First, Lever leans toward a lighter application than some other systems — many Lever forms ask for little more than a resume, contact details, and a few links, with the hiring team doing most of its evaluation from the resume itself and from any role-specific questions. Second, unlike Workday's structured skills database, a standard Lever application doesn't ask you to enter skills as separate searchable tags. There's no dedicated skills field carrying your keywords — they have to live in the resume you upload and in whatever free-text answers the form asks for.

That has a practical consequence: on Lever, the resume does more of the work. A short form means fewer places to make your case, so the version you upload needs to be the one that's actually tailored to this job description.

Field by field: what each one is for

Lever forms vary by company and role, but the building blocks are consistent. Here's what to expect.

Resume upload (and autofill)

Most Lever forms let you upload a resume and then offer to autofill the rest of the form from it — and many also offer a "resume or LinkedIn" autofill option. Both are conveniences, not guarantees. As with any parser, expect some of these:

• Job titles truncated or merged with the line above them
• Date ranges that lose months, especially when they end in "Present"
• Roles from a second page dropped entirely
• Company names with unusual capitalization or characters mangled
• LinkedIn autofill pulling whatever's on your profile — which is only as current as you've kept it

Upload a PDF if you're given the choice — PDFs preserve formatting more consistently than Word files, which can render differently depending on the version of Office used to open them. Then read back every field the autofill populated and fix what's wrong. A recruiter reads these fields next to your resume; mismatches between the two are exactly the kind of thing that makes an application look careless.

Name, email, phone, location

The basics, with a few specifics:

• Name: use the name you'd want on an offer letter, and make sure it matches your LinkedIn so a recruiter can connect the two.
• Email: a personal address, not your current work email.
• Phone: the number you actually answer.
• Location: for a remote role, your real city and state; for an in-office role, be honest about whether you'd relocate. Location tends to come up early in the process, so there's no upside to fudging it.

Links (LinkedIn, portfolio, other URLs)

Lever forms usually include fields for a LinkedIn URL and often a portfolio, GitHub, or personal site. Fill in the ones that strengthen your case, and leave the rest blank rather than padding with weak links:

• LinkedIn: almost always worth including. Confirm your profile is current first — a recruiter who clicks through to a stale profile gets a worse impression than if you'd left it off.
• Portfolio / GitHub / personal site: include these for roles where the work is the evidence (design, engineering, writing, data). Link directly to relevant work, not a generic landing page.
• "Other" URL: only if it adds something — a specific project, a talk, a published piece. A link to your Twitter for a backend role doesn't help.

The "additional information" field

Many Lever forms include an optional free-text box, often labeled something like "additional information." It is not a second cover letter, and it's not required. Use it only when you have something specific the rest of the form doesn't capture:

• A one-line reason this specific role or company is a fit — grounded in something concrete, not generic enthusiasm
• A brief, neutral explanation of an employment gap or a career change, if it would otherwise raise a question
• A pointer to a specific piece of work that's directly relevant

If your resume already tells the story and there are no loose ends to address, leave it blank. An empty optional field reads better than filler — recruiters can tell the difference between a note with a purpose and text added to look thorough.

Custom application questions

Some Lever roles add custom questions configured by the hiring team. When they're there, they're the closest thing in the application to "what this team actually cares about," and one-line or copy-pasted answers are an easy way to get screened out. Common types:

• "Why this role / why this company?" — Tie your specific experience to the specific role rather than praising the company. Reference something concrete you've done that maps to the work in the posting.
• "Tell us about a project / a time you…" — Pick one example and structure it: the situation, what you did, the outcome. Around 100–150 words. One example told well beats three told vaguely.
• Short-answer screening questions (years of experience with a tool, work authorization, willingness to relocate) — answer honestly. These get verified later, and a misleading answer surfaces at the worst possible time.

Draft anything open-ended in a notes app and paste it in, rather than composing in the form. It protects against losing work if the page reloads, and it's easier to edit for length outside the cramped form field.

"How did you hear about us?"

This looks like a throwaway field, but one answer — a referral — can change how your application is handled. Companies also use it to track which channels produce their best hires.

• Employee referral: if anyone you know works there, ask them to refer you through their internal portal first; most applicant tracking systems flag referred candidates and route them through a faster pipeline. Naming them here surfaces the connection either way. (See Jobvite's annual recruiter surveys for the consistent finding that referred candidates have higher interview rates than cold applicants.)
• Recruiter outreach: if a recruiter contacted you about the role, name them.
• Specific job board, event, or newsletter: naming the specific channel is more useful to the company than a generic answer, even if it doesn't change how your application is processed.
• "Google" or a generic search: fine, but it neither helps nor hurts. If you saw a specific post or person, name that instead.

Demographic / EEO questions

Many Lever forms include optional demographic questions (gender, race/ethnicity, veteran status, disability) for equal-opportunity reporting. These are typically presented as optional, with a decline-to-answer choice. The specifics of how a given employer collects and uses this data are set by that employer and the system they've configured — if you want to know exactly how it's handled for a particular company, that company's careers or privacy page is the authoritative source. Answer or skip based on what you're comfortable with.

A step-by-step process for a clean application

An order of operations that minimizes wasted effort:

Step 1: Read the job description carefully before you upload anything. Note the core requirements, key tools, and whether the form has custom questions. This shapes which resume version you upload and how you answer.

Step 2: Upload the right resume. Prefer a PDF, and upload the version most tailored to this specific job. Because Lever has no separate skills field, the resume is carrying your keywords.

Step 3: Audit the autofill. Whether you used resume parse or LinkedIn autofill, scroll through every populated field and fix titles, dates, and company names.

Step 4: Add only the links that help. LinkedIn (current), plus a portfolio or repository if the work is the evidence. Skip the rest.

Step 5: Write any custom-question answers in a notes app, then paste. This is where the time goes for roles you want. Keep examples specific and structured.

Step 6: Use "additional information" only if you have a reason. A specific note, a gap explanation, or a relevant link — otherwise leave it blank.

Step 7: Fill in "How did you hear about us?" with intent. Surface any referral.

Step 8: Review, then submit. Open every section once more, confirm the form matches your resume, and check the open-ended answers for typos before you hit submit.

Common mistakes to avoid

Most applicants make at least one of these on a Lever form. They're easy to fix once you know to look.

Treating the short form as a low-effort form

A Lever application asking for little can read as a signal that little is expected. It isn't. With fewer fields, each one carries more weight — and the resume, which is doing most of the evaluating, needs to be the tailored version, not a generic one.

Trusting the autofill

Resume parse and LinkedIn autofill both save time and both make mistakes. If you submit without auditing, the recruiter may see a worse version of your history than you'd actually present — dropped roles, mangled titles, missing months.

Using "additional information" as a dumping ground

A long, unfocused note in the optional box doesn't read as thorough; it reads as padding. If you don't have a specific reason to use it, the stronger move is to leave it blank.

Padding the links

Three weak links don't beat one strong one. A stale LinkedIn or an irrelevant social profile gives a recruiter a reason to form an impression you didn't intend. Link only to things that strengthen your case.

Composing custom answers in the form itself

Open-ended answers deserve real thought, and the form field is a bad place to do it — reloads can lose work, and the cramped box makes editing for length harder. Draft in a notes app, then paste.

How Lever interacts with your resume

The application form and your resume serve different purposes, and on Lever the balance tips toward the resume:

Your resume is the primary document. With no separate searchable skills field and often a light form, it's what a recruiter reads to evaluate fit — context, scope, accomplishments, trajectory, and the keywords that signal relevance.

The Lever form is the wrapper: contact details, links, and any role-specific answers that add what the resume can't show on its own. Its job is to point the recruiter at the right things, not to replace the resume's content.

Make sure the two tell the same story. Because the resume is carrying the keywords that a more structured system would capture in dedicated fields, tailoring it to the job description matters more on Lever, not less. For the bigger picture of how systems like Lever process applications, see how ATS works for resumes.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a Lever application take to fill out?

The core Lever form is short — resume upload, a few contact fields, and links. If that's all the role asks for, you can finish in five minutes. The time goes into the custom application questions and the additional-information box, when the role includes them. For a job you genuinely want, plan for 15 to 25 minutes so the open-ended answers get real thought rather than a one-line response.

Should I use Lever's resume parse and LinkedIn autofill, or fill the fields in manually?

Use the autofill to save typing, then check every field it populated. Like any resume parser, Lever's can mangle job titles, drop months from date ranges, and miss roles from a second page. LinkedIn autofill is only as current as your LinkedIn profile, so if your profile is out of date, the form will be too. The form fields are what a recruiter reads alongside your resume, so correct anything that came through wrong before submitting.

What should I put in Lever's "additional information" field?

It's an optional free-text box, not a second cover letter. Use it only when you have something specific the rest of the form doesn't capture: a short note on why this role, a one-line explanation of an employment gap or a career change, or a link to relevant work. If your resume already tells the story and there are no loose ends to address, it's fine to leave it blank — an empty field reads better than filler.

Does Lever have a searchable skills field like Workday?

No. Unlike Workday's structured skills database, a standard Lever application doesn't ask you to enter skills as separate searchable tags. Recruiters review your resume, your links, and your answers to any custom questions. That means your keywords need to live in the resume itself and in your free-text answers — there's no dedicated skills field doing that work for you, so tailoring the resume you upload matters more on Lever, not less.

What should I write in the "How did you hear about us?" field on a Lever form?

Be specific and accurate. If anyone you know works there, ask them to refer you through their internal portal first; naming them in this field surfaces the connection either way. Referred candidates have higher interview rates in most published recruiter surveys. If a recruiter contacted you, name them. If you found the role on a specific job board or newsletter, say which one. Generic answers like "Google" are fine but don't help you — the most useful answer is whichever one is true and most specific.