Job Application Status Meanings: What Each Label Means

A job application status is a label an employer shows you for a stage in its own hiring process. There is no shared standard. Some systems have a short fixed list, some let every employer write its own words, and two popular ones show candidates nothing. So the word on your screen may not mean what it meant at the last company.

I’ve written a separate guide to each major system, linked below. This page is the view across all of them: what a label usually means wherever you find it, and which words change meaning from one system to the next. Read every meaning as “usually,” because the employer has the final say.

What job application statuses mean

Nearly every status belongs to one of four groups: not submitted, received, still open, or closed. Interview and offer stages count as open, and they normally come with an email. The first group is the easy one to miss, because the employer is waiting on you. The table goes in roughly the order you’d meet the labels.

What does “application in process” mean?

“Application in process” means your application is open and the employer hasn’t shown you a decision. I couldn’t find a vendor or employer that defines “In Process” as a formal status, so read it the way employers define its close relative, “In Progress.” That label covers a lot of ground, as the next section shows. Keep applying elsewhere, and treat an email or a scheduling request as the real signal.

The words that change meaning between systems

These are the labels where a meaning learned on one system will mislead you on another.

Completed

On Taleo, Oracle’s default statuses are Draft, Complete and Withdraw, and Complete means you finished the application. It says nothing about a decision. On Workday, the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows “Completed” on the Inactive tab for any declined application and for canceled requisitions. So one word can mean “we have it” at one employer and “it’s over” at another.

In Progress

Three published examples show how wide this one runs. At the University of Washington, which recruits on Workday, In Progress means HR is still checking your resume against minimum qualifications and eligibility. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, it covers every active stage after review, including interviews and assessments. SAP uses the same idea as its example for SuccessFactors: a status recruiters see as “Interview” can appear to you as “In Progress.” You could be before the first check or between interview rounds and see the same words.

Under Review

On iCIMS, any workflow stage the employer didn’t give its own label displays as “Under Review” by default. Auburn University’s published workflow shows four internal staff-hiring stages under that one label, from Application Received to Search Committee Review. It can’t tell you that someone is reading your application today.

Under Consideration and No Longer Under Consideration

Oracle lists Under Consideration as a status inside a Taleo workflow step, and the University of Houston tells its reviewers to use it for candidates they reviewed and want to keep in the pool. Auburn’s “Further Consideration” is later still, covering interviews and selection for hire. UC Santa Cruz’s “Routed for Further Consideration” means your materials went to the hiring department.

Add “no longer” and the application is closed. UC Santa Cruz uses that label when the department reviewed your application against the required qualifications and didn’t see the skills it needed for an interview. Union Pacific says “no longer being considered” means you didn’t meet the minimum qualifications. Other employers may use it for any closed application, and the University of Washington notes that its “Not selected” can happen at any time after you apply.

Archived

Of the eight systems below, SmartRecruiters is the one that documents this word as a candidate status. There it means rejected, withdrawn, transferred to another job, or deleted by the company. A transfer is the one good outcome, so look for a new role in your list. On Lever and Ashby, archived is an internal term you won’t see. Lever also archives hired people under a “Hired” reason, so when a recruiter says “archived,” the outcome could be either.

Inactive

On Workday, Inactive is a tab that holds closed applications. Greenhouse uses it as a status: an application goes inactive when a rejection email is sent, or four days after the rejection if none is. Older SmartRecruiters help uses “Status Inactive” the same way as Archived. In all three it refers to one application and leaves you free to apply to other jobs at the company.

Position Filled and canceled roles

These describe the job more than they describe you. Union Pacific says its “Job Order Filled” status means it received more applications than it needed and yours wasn’t reviewed. The University of Washington’s “Recruitment Canceled” means the department called off the search and won’t fill the position. A frozen requisition can show nothing new: at Wisconsin-Madison, candidates keep whatever status they had.

Offer Rejected

This one reads like the employer pulled the offer. At both UC Santa Cruz and the City of Toronto, it means the candidate turned the offer down.

Statuses by system

Each guide has that system’s full list and the steps for finding it.

If you’re not sure which system you’re in, the address bar usually tells you: look for myworkdayjobs.com, taleo.net, icims.com, greenhouse.io, jobs.lever.co or jobs.ashbyhq.com. I compared four of them on forms and screening in Greenhouse vs Lever vs Ashby vs Workday.

Why statuses and emails don’t line up

A status moves when someone moves it, and an email goes out when someone sends one. The two are often unconnected:

• Status changes can be silent. Wisconsin-Madison’s HR guide warns its own staff that removing a candidate or closing a requisition in Workday sends no notification. Greenhouse says candidates aren’t told when an application goes inactive.
• Rejection emails are optional. Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby all let the recruiter choose whether to send one, so some applications simply go quiet.
• Emails can lag the decision. Greenhouse and Ashby both support delayed rejection emails, and Ashby’s auto-reject rules run the moment you submit. A rejection three days later may have been decided instantly. More on that in Does an ATS reject resumes?
• Closures can wait for the end of a search. In Auburn’s iCIMS workflow, other candidates get their disposition emails when the finalist acknowledges the offer.

So an unchanged status tells you very little in either direction. When a label and an email disagree, go with the email. Automated hiring emails often come from addresses like hire.lever.co or ashbyhq.com, and if one looks odd, here is how to tell whether a job application email is legit.

What to do next, whatever the label says

• Follow up once, with a person. About two weeks after applying or a week after an interview is reasonable. Most portals have no messaging, and Greenhouse says its support team can’t contact recruiters for you, so use email or LinkedIn. Include the job title and the requisition number.
• Withdraw through the right channel. SuccessFactors, Taleo and SmartRecruiters usually have a withdraw option, and Workday and iCIMS have one if the employer allows it. On Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby, you ask the company. The details are in how to edit or withdraw a job application.
• Look across your applications. If you’re being closed out quickly at many companies, check your screening answers, your targeting and your resume. The free ATS resume checker shows which of a posting’s keywords your resume is missing.
• Keep your own record. Note the company, title, requisition number, portal link, date applied and the last status you saw. With no status page on Lever or Ashby, it may be the only record you have. A free tracker spreadsheet works fine for this.