Workday Application Status Meanings (Full Glossary)

Your Workday status usually means exactly what it says, but the labels are vaguer than they look. "Under Consideration" means active and being reviewed, "In Progress" means your application moved into the pipeline, and "Not Selected" means rejected. The tricky part is that every employer configures Workday differently, so the same word can mean slightly different things depending on the company.

This glossary covers the statuses you'll actually see, what each one signals, and what (if anything) to do about it.

The short version

Here are the most common Workday statuses and what they typically mean.

The single most important thing to know: Workday only updates when a human moves you. A status that hasn't changed in three weeks doesn't mean anything went wrong — it usually means the recruiter hasn't gotten to the stack yet.

"Submitted," "Received," and "In Progress"

These are the entry-level statuses. "Submitted" or "Received" simply confirms Workday has your application on file. "In Progress" usually means it has entered the active requisition and is eligible for review, but no human has necessarily opened it yet.

None of these tell you anything about your fit. They're administrative checkpoints. If you submitted correctly and see one of these, you've done your part. For the mechanics of getting to this stage cleanly, see how to apply on Workday.

"Under Consideration" vs "Reviewed"

This is where people overthink things. "Under Consideration" means your application is active and in the review pool. It is genuinely neutral-to-mildly-positive: you haven't been cut, and you're being looked at or are queued to be. It is not an offer, an interview invite, or a promise.

"Reviewed" is more literal: a recruiter or hiring manager has actually opened your application. On its own it doesn't say whether they liked it. Some employers move you from "Reviewed" straight to an interview stage; others move you to "Not Selected." It's a milestone, not a verdict.

The two are easy to confuse because the difference is subtle. We break it down in detail in Workday "In Progress" vs "Under Consideration".

Interview and offer statuses

Once you reach "Interview," "In Interview," "Phone Screen," or similar, the labels become reassuringly clear. These mean you've advanced to an evaluation stage. The exact wording varies because each employer names its own stages in Workday.

"Offer" or "Offer Extended" is the one you want. It means an offer is being prepared or has been sent. Don't panic if it appears before you've gotten the call — recruiters often update the system and reach out separately, sometimes a day or two apart.

Rejection statuses: "Not Selected" and friends

The bluntest status is "Not Selected," which means you were rejected for this specific role. You may also see "No longer under consideration" or "Candidate is no longer being considered," which mean the same thing.

Two honest caveats:

• Not every rejection gets a status update. Many employers close requisitions without flipping your status, so you may stay on "Under Consideration" forever even though the role is filled. Silence is, unfortunately, a common form of rejection.
• Workday does not auto-reject based on keywords. Workday is an applicant tracking system — mostly a database and workflow tool for recruiters. It organizes and searches applications; it doesn't secretly score and discard you. Real humans make the cut decisions.

If you want the full picture on how Workday communicates rejections, read does Workday tell you if you've been rejected.

How to actually check your status

Workday isn't one website. Each employer runs its own Workday tenant, so you log in to that specific company's Candidate Home (the link usually came in your confirmation email). Once you're in:

• Open the role under "My Applications" or "Active Applications."
• The current stage shows next to the job title.
• "Withdraw" is also there if you want to pull out — covered in the how to apply guide.

Don't email the recruiter the day after applying to ask for an update. A polite follow-up after a week or two is fine; daily check-ins are not.

Workday vs other ATS labels

If you're applying broadly, you'll see the same concepts under different names across systems. The vocabulary differs, but the underlying stages are similar.

For the equivalents, see iCIMS application status meanings, Taleo's "Completed" status, and SmartRecruiters status meanings.

Stop refreshing, keep applying

The hardest truth about Workday statuses is that you can't control them, and reading tea leaves into a label that hasn't moved is a great way to lose a week. The best response to a stalled "Under Consideration" is usually to send a couple more strong applications elsewhere.

That's the slow part: every Workday tenant makes you re-enter the same work history, education, and EEO questions. JobRizzer is a Chrome extension that autofills those Workday fields (and other ATS forms) from your resume and, on Pro, tailors your resume to each role — you still review every field and submit yourself. It won't change a status, but it gives you back the hours so a quiet inbox stings a little less.

Decode the label, do what little you can, then move on to the next one.