Does "under consideration" mean I got the job?

No. It means your application has not been rejected and is somewhere in the review pipeline, nothing more. It is a neutral, in-progress status, not an offer signal and not an interview guarantee. Treat it as "still in the running," then keep applying elsewhere as if you had not heard anything.

How long does "under consideration" usually last?

Commonly one to three weeks, but it can sit for a month or longer, especially at large companies or for roles with many applicants. Many tracking systems also never update the status even after a decision is made, so a stale "under consideration" can quietly mean the role was filled. If it has been more than two to three weeks with no contact, a single polite follow-up is reasonable.

What is the difference between "under consideration" and "under review"?

In practice they mean almost the same thing: a human or the system has your application in the active pile and no decision has been made. Different applicant tracking systems just use different words for the same stage. Do not read tea leaves into the exact wording, because the label is set by the employer's software, not by how much they like you.

Should I follow up when my status says "under consideration"?

You can, but wait until it has been at least one to two weeks and keep it short. A brief, friendly note to the recruiter reaffirming your interest is fine; daily check-ins are not. If you have no named contact, it is usually better to spend that energy on new applications than on chasing a status page that may not update.

Why did my status stay "under consideration" even after I was rejected elsewhere?

Application statuses are notoriously unreliable because recruiters often forget to update them, or the system only changes the label at certain steps. A frozen "under consideration" can mean the team is still deciding, or that the role was filled and nobody closed your record. Because the signal is so noisy, the only safe move is to assume nothing and keep your search active.

What Does "Under Consideration" Mean on a Job Application?

You refreshed the application portal, and the status flipped to "under consideration." Good news, bad news, or nothing? Short version: it is a neutral, in-progress signal. Your application is in the pile and has not been rejected, but no decision has been made. Here is exactly what it means, how it differs from every other status you will see, and what to actually do while you wait.

What "under consideration" actually means

"Under consideration" (and its twin, "under review") means your application made it past the very first gate and is now in the active queue for a recruiter or hiring manager to look at. It usually signals one of two things: either you cleared the automated or recruiter-level screen and a human is genuinely reviewing your materials, or you are simply sitting in the stack of applications that have not been touched yet. The status itself does not tell you which.

What it is not: it is not an offer, not an interview invitation, and not a promise that a person has read your resume word for word. It is the employer\'s software saying "still in the running, no decision logged." That is genuinely better than a rejection, but it is a long way from a yes.

How it differs from other application statuses

Most applicant tracking systems move you through a rough funnel. The exact labels vary, but the stages line up like this:

Received / Applied / Submitted. The system has your application on file. No one has necessarily looked at it. This is the rawest, earliest stage.
Under consideration / Under review / In review. You are in the active pile. A recruiter may be screening, or you may be queued for screening. No decision yet. This is the status this article is about.
Interviewing / In process / Assessment. You have advanced to interviews or a skills test. This is a real positive signal: a human decided you are worth time.
Offer / Offer extended. The good one. They want you.
Not selected / Not moving forward / Closed (you). A rejection for you specifically.
Position closed / Filled / No longer accepting applications. The role itself ended, sometimes filled by someone else, sometimes cancelled. This is about the job, not about you.

The key mental model: "received" means logged, "under consideration" means in the pile, "interviewing" means chosen. Moving from "under consideration" to "interviewing" is the jump that matters. Everything before that is just queue position.

Per-platform wording: the label depends on the ATS

Here is the part that trips people up. The words you see are chosen by whichever applicant tracking system the company uses, not by how the team feels about you. The same underlying stage shows up with totally different text depending on the platform:

Workday. Tends to show stages like "Under Consideration," "In Review," or "Interview," and many Workday-based portals barely update at all after the initial submission.
Greenhouse. Often surfaces "Application Under Review" or simply "Application Received," with limited public status detail; a lot of communication happens over email instead.
Lever, Ashby, iCIMS, Workable, SmartRecruiters, Jobvite. Each has its own vocabulary ("Active," "In Progress," "Reviewing," "New Applicant," and so on), and many show the candidate very little.
Custom company careers pages. Anything goes. Some show a clean status timeline; many show nothing beyond "submitted."

The takeaway: do not compare the exact wording on one company\'s portal to another\'s and try to rank your odds. "Under consideration" at one employer and "under review" at another are the same stage in two different systems. The label is a UI string, not a verdict.

How long it typically lasts

Plan for one to three weeks as the common range, but do not be surprised if it sits longer. Timelines stretch when:

The company is large. More applicants and more approval layers mean slower movement.
The role got a flood of applications. Popular or remote-friendly listings can pull hundreds of candidates, and recruiters work through them in batches.
It is a hiring freeze or budget-review period. Roles can pause mid-process without the status ever changing.

Crucially, the status often does not update even after a decision is made. Recruiters are busy and frequently forget to close out records, so a "under consideration" that has sat untouched for a month can quietly mean the job was already filled. The absence of an update is not the same as being kept alive. If it has been more than two to three weeks of silence, assume the trail has gone cold and act accordingly.

What to do while you wait

The single most important rule: a status update is not a reason to pause your search. Here is the practical playbook.

Keep applying. Treat every application as if you will never hear back, because for most you will not. The candidates who land offers fastest are the ones with the most live applications in flight at once, not the ones refreshing one portal.
Follow up once, politely, after one to two weeks. If you have a recruiter contact, a short note reaffirming your interest and asking about timeline is fine. One message. Not a campaign.
Use your network. A referral or a warm intro to someone on the team moves your application out of the "under consideration" pile faster than any status-page refresh.
Do not over-read the status. It will not predict the outcome. Spend your attention on volume and quality of new applications instead.

What "under consideration" does NOT guarantee

To be blunt about the limits of this status:

It does not guarantee a human has read your resume in full.
It does not guarantee you will get an interview.
It does not guarantee the role is even still open.
It does not guarantee the status will ever change to reflect the real decision.

It guarantees exactly one thing: as of the last time the system was updated, you had not been rejected. That is worth a small nod of optimism and zero change to your plans.

The real move: keep your momentum up

Watching one status bar is the slowest possible way to job search. The applicants who win are the ones who keep the funnel full, because a single "under consideration" that stalls out costs you nothing if you have ten more applications moving. The catch is that filling out application forms by hand is slow and repetitive, and that friction is exactly what makes people stop applying and start refreshing portals instead.

Lentra fixes the friction. It is a free Chrome extension that fills each job application in about 20 seconds, across Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, iCIMS, and the long tail of company careers pages. You save your profile and resume once (sign in with Google), and it fills standard fields, work history, education, and even drafts the essay questions from your real resume, which you review before you submit yourself. No quotas, no mass-apply bot behavior, just fast applications so a single stalled status never slows you down.

Install Lentra

Free, takes one minute.