Taleo Application Status: What Completed Really Means

Taleo is Oracle’s older recruiting system, and plenty of large employers, hospitals, school districts and governments still run on it. You can usually spot it by an address containing taleo.net and a page called My Jobpage. After you apply, that page lists your application with a submission status that almost always says one thing: “Completed.”

People reasonably read that as “they completed reviewing me,” which is why it causes so much worry. It doesn’t mean that. This post goes through what Taleo statuses actually mean, according to Oracle’s own documentation, and what to do at each one. As with every applicant tracking system, employers configure a lot of this themselves, so treat every meaning as “usually.”

What does “Completed” mean on Taleo?

On Taleo, a “Completed” submission status means you finished and submitted your application. It is not a decision of any kind.

Oracle’s Taleo documentation lists three default job submission statuses that every organization has:

• Draft: the candidate has not completed the job application.
• Complete: the candidate has completed the job application.
• Withdraw: the candidate has withdrawn the job application.

Career sites commonly display the second one as “Completed.” If your employer uses only these defaults, which is the out-of-the-box setting, your status will say Completed from the day you apply until the end, whether you’re hired, rejected or forgotten. That’s why it never seems to change.

Taleo statuses at a glance

Why some employers show more than “Completed”

Inside Taleo, recruiters move candidates through a candidate selection workflow made of steps (such as New, HM Review, Interview, Offer, Hire) and, within each step, statuses. Oracle’s examples of those statuses include “To be reviewed,” “Under Consideration,” “Rejected” and “Has Declined.”

By default, none of that is shown to you. An employer can turn on a setting to customize submission statuses and write its own candidate-facing label, with an optional description, for each step. Only then does your My Submissions page show something like an interview label when you reach the interview step. So two Taleo employers can give you completely different amounts of information: one shows Completed forever, another shows every step.

Two more traps in the vocabulary:

• “Completed” also exists on the recruiter side, where it means a step is finished and the candidate can move to the next one, whether forward or out. If a recruiter or a forum post says your step is “completed,” that alone doesn’t tell you which way it went.
• “Draft” is used for requisitions too. A job being drafted internally has nothing to do with your application. If your submission says Draft, it’s yours that is unfinished.

What does “Under Consideration” mean on Taleo?

“Under Consideration” usually means you’re still in the pool for that job. In Oracle’s workflow it is a status within a step rather than a step of its own, and employers use it in different places. The University of Houston’s Taleo guide, for example, tells reviewers to use it for candidates they have reviewed and want to keep in the pool. Other employers may set it much earlier. Either way, it’s better than a rejection and short of an interview invite. What to do: keep applying elsewhere and watch your email, including spam.

How to check your Taleo application status

1. Go to the employer’s careers page and open their Taleo career section (any job posting links to it).
2. Sign in. Taleo accounts belong to each employer’s career section, so a login for one company won’t work at another.
3. Open My Jobpage, then the My Submissions tab, which lists each application and its submission status.

If an application you started isn’t there, check whether it is sitting as a Draft. A common way to end up with a Draft is closing the browser before the final review-and-submit page of a multi-page Taleo application.

Editing and withdrawing a Taleo application

Taleo is more flexible here than most systems, but it depends on the employer. Some career sections show a View/Edit Submission option on My Jobpage while the job is still open, which lets you fix a mistake without withdrawing.

To withdraw, go to My Jobpage > My Submissions and use the withdraw option on that application. Oracle’s support documentation covers both candidate withdrawal and a setting that makes candidates give a withdrawal reason, so you may be asked why. Employer job aids generally advise withdrawing only if you no longer want to be considered, and editing the submission instead if you just want to change something. If there’s no withdraw option, email the recruiter with the job title and job number.

Why your Taleo status never changes, and when to follow up

If your employer uses the default statuses, it can’t change in any useful way: it’ll be Completed until you withdraw. Even with custom labels, a status only moves when someone moves you in the system, and many recruiters only update the shortlist. Rejections at large organizations are often sent in batches when the job closes, if they’re sent at all.

• Treat Completed as “applied,” nothing more. Your inbox is the real status page.
• Follow up once, about two weeks after applying or a week after an interview, by email or LinkedIn, since the career section has no messaging.
• Include the job number from the posting. Big Taleo employers often have many openings with the same title.

Keeping track across Taleo and everything else

Taleo is just one of several portals you’ll juggle. Each one has its own words for the same few stages: see the guides to Workday, iCIMS, SuccessFactors, Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby and SmartRecruiters. Since Taleo will tell you so little, your own record matters more here than anywhere: company, job title, job number, the career section URL, date applied, and every email you get.