If you're applying to fast-growing tech startups, you'll run into Ashby a lot. It's one of the newer applicant tracking systems, popular with well-funded Series A to C companies and modern recruiting teams that love its analytics. Because Ashby is new and slick, people assume its parser will read anything. It won't. A modern parser recovers small quirks; it does not read your two-column template or the text inside your graphics. And at competitive tech startups, the candidate pool is strong, so a resume that parses at 90% loses to one that parses at 100%. Here's how to give Ashby nothing to trip on.
- Ashby is the ATS at many modern tech startups. If you're applying to well-funded startups, assume Ashby or a peer is reading you first.
- New and slick doesn't mean it reads anything. Two-column layouts, tables, and image-based files still break the parse.
- Competition is the real filter. Against strong tech pools, a clean parse and precise keyword match are what separate you.
- The winning format is universal: single column, plain text, standard headings, no tables or graphics.
- Match the exact stack the role names — languages, frameworks, tools — inside real accomplishments.
What Ashby does with your resume
Ashby parses your resume into a structured candidate profile and gives recruiters powerful search, filtering, and analytics on top (the general mechanics are in what an ATS is and how it reads your resume). Because Ashby is popular with tech and startup teams, applications often go to smaller, faster-moving recruiting teams — but your resume is still extracted into text and searched, and the pools for good tech roles are strong. So even with a capable parser, the details decide it. For how modern parsers compare, see Greenhouse vs Workday parsing, and the closest cousin, Lever.
"Modern parser" doesn't mean anything goes
The most common mistake with Ashby, Lever, and Greenhouse is assuming a modern ATS means your beautifully designed template is safe. It reads your columns no better than an old parser does — every generation reads the page across, so a two-column layout still scrambles your work history (why two columns break). Images, skill bars, and text inside graphics are still invisible. A newer parser recovers small quirks; it doesn't fix a fundamentally un-parseable layout.
The format that gets through Ashby
- Single column, top to bottom. No sidebars, no layout tables.
- Plain-text name and contact in the body of page one (why the ATS can't read your name).
- Standard headings: Summary, Experience, Education, Skills.
- Real, selectable text in a clean PDF or .docx.
- Links spelled out as plain text — your GitHub and portfolio matter in tech, so make sure they parse (do ATS read hyperlinks).
It's the same format that gets you through iCIMS, Taleo, and every other system — see how to pass the ATS for the complete method.
The tech-specific edge: match the exact stack
For engineering and technical roles, keyword matching is unusually literal. If the role lists "React," "TypeScript," and "PostgreSQL," write those exact terms — not "modern JavaScript frameworks and relational databases." Parsers match tokens, not synonyms (more in ATS keywords vs action verbs and how to list skills). List your real stack plainly, and prove the important tools inside accomplishments. Since nearly all sizable employers run an ATS, and strong tech pools are competitive, that precision is your edge (wider picture in do Fortune 500 companies use an ATS).
Check what Ashby would see
You can't tell whether your resume — or your GitHub link — parsed cleanly by looking at it. Verify before you apply: the free copy-paste test gives a quick read, and a free ATS scan shows the exact text pulled from your file, with no invented score and no signup. For more on the platform, see our Ashby ATS guide.