Greenhouse, Lever & Ashby Application Status: A Combined Guide

Short version: in Greenhouse, Lever, and Ashby, the status you see is set manually by the recruiting team, so the same word can mean different things at different companies. "Under Review," "Active," and "Submitted" generally mean you're still in the pipeline; an archived or rejected status means you're out. Below is what each common label tends to mean and what you should actually do about it.

These three are applicant tracking systems (ATS) built mostly for the recruiter's side. The candidate-facing status is a thin layer on top of a much richer internal pipeline, which is why it so often feels vague or stuck.

Quick comparison: the labels that matter

Each system uses slightly different language for the same three states: received, still in play, and done.

The exact wording you see depends on how each company configured its pipeline. Treat these as patterns, not guarantees.

Greenhouse statuses

Greenhouse is one of the most common ATS platforms, and its candidate portal is deliberately minimal. You'll typically see "Application Submitted" first, then possibly "Under Review" or "In Process."

• Application Submitted / Under Review: You're in the queue. "Under Review" rarely means someone is reading your resume at that exact moment. Many teams leave it on this status for the entire process.
• In Process / Interviewing: You've advanced past the initial screen. This is a genuinely good sign.
• Rejected / Not Moving Forward: You're out. Greenhouse can trigger a rejection email when a recruiter selects this, but plenty of companies disable that and go silent instead.

A frozen "Under Review" is the single most common Greenhouse experience, and it tells you almost nothing. Don't read it as either good or bad.

Lever statuses

Lever organizes candidates into stages (New, In Review, Interview, Offer) and an "Archived" bucket for everyone who's no longer being considered.

• New / Applied: Received, not yet triaged.
• In Review: A recruiter has the file in the screening stage. Movement here is normal.
• Interview: You're being actively scheduled or have interviewed.
• Archived: You've been removed from the active pipeline. Recruiters attach a "rejection reason" when archiving, and Lever can fire an automated rejection email. Some teams skip the email, so an archive can happen quietly.

If you ever get a Lever email that just says your application was received, that's an auto-confirmation, not a status update. The real signal is whether a recruiter ever moves you out of "New."

Ashby statuses

Ashby is newer and popular with fast-growing startups. Its candidate view leans on "Active" versus "Archived."

• Submitted: Application received.
• Active / In Progress: You're a live candidate somewhere in the pipeline. Ashby won't usually tell you the exact internal stage.
• Archived / Rejected: You're no longer being considered. Ashby teams can send rejection emails, but as with the others, it's optional.

"Active" is reassuring but low-resolution. It confirms you haven't been cut; it doesn't confirm you're advancing.

What none of these statuses reliably tell you

Across all three platforms, the same blind spots show up. Knowing them saves you from over-reading the dashboard.

• A stuck status is not a rejection. Teams routinely review and reject internally without ever updating the candidate-facing label. This is the same pattern you'll see in other systems, like the iCIMS status meanings and the way Taleo's "Completed" status works.
• "Reviewed" rarely means a hiring manager read it. It can mean a recruiter glanced for 10 seconds, or that an automated rule marked it.
• Silence is the default, not a message. Many companies never send a rejection. If a role gets filled and you never hear back, that's common and not personal.
• Resume parsing is not screening. The ATS auto-fills fields from your resume so a human can review faster; it is mostly a search and organization tool, not an auto-reject gate. Don't try to game it with keyword-stuffing or white text.

What to actually do

Instead of refreshing the portal, focus on the things that move the needle.

1. Confirm you actually submitted everything. Missing fields and unanswered screening questions are a real, fixable reason applications stall. The Workday status glossary is a good reminder of how easy it is to leave a step incomplete on long forms.
2. Follow up by email after about two weeks if you have a recruiter contact, with a short, specific note. One follow-up is fine; three is not.
3. Keep applying. No single status is worth waiting on. Volume plus quality beats portal-watching every time.

Filling out Greenhouse, Lever, and Ashby forms by hand is where most of the time goes, especially the repetitive fields these systems all ask for. JobRizzer is a Chrome extension that autofills those applications from your resume and, on Pro, tailors your resume to each job. It's assisted, not automated: you review every field and submit yourself, nothing gets sent on your behalf. That frees you to spend your energy on the applications themselves rather than the typing.

The dashboard label is the least informative part of your job search. Read it for the big states (in play vs. out), ignore the noise, and put your effort where it counts.