Under Consideration vs. Under Review: Which Comes First?

You check your job portal on a Tuesday morning and notice your status updated. One company says Under Review, and another says Under Consideration.

Both sound polite, vague, and almost identical. Candidates spend days guessing whether one means an interview invite is coming this week or if both are just fancy ways of saying "wait in line."

Here is the plain truth from tracking live candidate portals across enterprise tech and Fortune 500 hiring: those two labels rarely represent the same step behind the scenes. One usually puts you in the screening pile, while the other puts you on a real shortlist. Even better, knowing which software a company uses tells you instantly whether your application moved forward or got parked.

Side-by-Side Comparison: Under Review vs. Under Consideration

If you only look at one chart today, use this one. Across major Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) like Workday Recruiting and iCIMS Talent Cloud, here is how the two stages compare in real hiring workflows.

Notice the biggest difference: volume. When your status says Under Review, you are usually still sitting in a massive crowd of applicants. Once it shifts to Under Consideration, a human recruiter or strict scoring rule has normally narrowed that pile down to people worth talking to.

Which Comes First? How Major Hiring Platforms Order Them

Here is where candidates get tripped up: companies configure their own status labels. While most Fortune 500 employers put Under Review before Under Consideration, the exact meaning shifts depending on which software sits behind the careers page.

1. Workday (Under Review / In Progress -> Under Consideration)

In standard Workday setups, your application starts as Application Received or In Progress. Moving to Under Review (sometimes labeled Recruiter Review) means a recruiter opened your batch. Moving to Under Consideration means you survived that initial cut and your profile is visible to the hiring manager.

If your portal sits on Workday, you can read our full Workday application status guide for all 12 stages, or check why your Workday date updated without a status change.

2. iCIMS (Under Review -> Under Consideration)

iCIMS is heavily used by banks, healthcare giants, and defense contractors. In iCIMS, Under Review almost always means a recruiter clicked into your resume and cleared automated keyword filters. Under Consideration is the next step up, signaling your file moved into a shortlist folder for interview selection. See our iCIMS application status guide for the full workflow.

3. JPMorgan Chase & Large Banks (Under Review -> Under Consideration)

At major banks using Taleo or Workday hybrids, Under Review is often an early intake bucket where hundreds of resumes wait for screening. Moving to Under Consideration means a recruiter verified your baseline credentials and routed your file toward the hiring team. Our JPMorgan application status guide breaks down how banking teams build these candidate slates.

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4. Oracle Taleo (Under Consideration Can Appear Immediately)

Taleo is notorious for confusing applicants. Some Taleo configurations automatically flip your status to Under Consideration two minutes after you hit submit, simply because you answered "Yes" to work authorization and location questions. In that case, you have not had a human review yet. Look at the timestamps: an instant flip within minutes is a system rule, not a recruiter decision.

5. Greenhouse, Lever, and Ashby (Usually No Public Status Change)

Modern tech companies rarely show either label. Instead, they send direct emails for phone screens or rejections. If a company uses one of these platforms and you do see Under Review, it normally just means your application is logged and waiting in the recruiter inbox.

What Happens Behind the Scenes in Each Stage

When we debrief candidates and track live pipelines across corporate hiring teams, the calendar explains why both statuses feel so slow.

Inside "Under Review"

When a popular role opens on Monday morning, 300 to 600 resumes often arrive within 48 hours.

Recruiters do not read all 600 applications one by one in real time. Instead, they block off 60 minutes on Wednesday or Friday to scan the top 50 to 100 profiles. If you applied on Tuesday afternoon, your file can sit untouched in Under Review for a full week simply because the recruiter is still working through Monday's batch.

Inside "Under Consideration"

Once a recruiter flags 15 to 25 strong resumes as Under Consideration, control shifts to the hiring manager.

Hiring managers are busy engineering leads, directors, or product owners running active teams. They rarely review resumes daily. Often, they meet with the recruiter once a week to pick 4 to 6 people for phone screens.

Meanwhile, the other 10 to 15 shortlisted people stay marked Under Consideration as a backup bench. Recruiters keep that bench open on purpose: if the first 4 candidates fail the technical screen or turn down the salary range, the team pulls the next person from Under Consideration without reposting the job.

For a deeper look at how that backup bench works, read our general Under Consideration meaning guide.

Status Flips: What Movement Between the Two Means

Sometimes your portal does not move in a straight line. Here is how to read the three most common transitions.

Flip 1: Under Review -> Under Consideration (Green Flag)

This is the normal upward path. It means your application cleared the first human or scoring hurdle and moved onto the active shortlist. Expect an email or phone screen invite within 3 to 10 business days if you are in the top interview wave.

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Flip 2: Under Consideration -> Under Review (Usually Neutral)

Seeing your status step backward feels alarming, especially if you already had a recruiter call. In roughly 9 out of 10 cases, this is not a secret rejection. It happens when:

• A recruiter moves candidate files into a new internal folder to organize interviews.
• The original recruiter goes on leave or transfers the job opening to a teammate.
• HR updates the job requisition settings, which resets the public-facing label.

Wait 5 business days before reacting. If nothing changes and you have a recruiter contact, send a short two-line check-in.

Flip 3: Stuck in Either Status for 3+ Weeks (Soft Freeze Signal)

If your status has not budged for 21+ calendar days and the job listing disappeared from the company's careers page, the team is almost certainly interviewing finalists or waiting on an offer signature. Companies often wait until a signed offer and background check clear before flipping remaining alternates to No Longer Under Consideration.

Under Consideration vs. Under Review After an Interview

If you already completed a phone screen, coding test, or panel loop, both labels take on a slightly different meaning:

• Under Review after an interview: Interviewers are still submitting their written scorecards, or the hiring panel has not held its final debrief meeting yet. In large tech companies, debriefs often happen only once or twice a week.
• Under Consideration after an interview: Your interview feedback is in and positive enough to keep you alive, so you are sitting in the active finalist pool while the team finishes interviewing the last 1 or 2 contenders on the schedule.

What You Should Do While Waiting (And Exact Follow-Up Scripts)

Do not withdraw and re-apply. Withdrawing deletes your review history and flags you as a duplicate or withdrawn candidate, which hurts your odds.

Instead, match your action to your current stage:

1. If you are in Under Review (0 to 10 business days): Sit tight. Keep applying elsewhere so you are never waiting on one portal.
2. If you are in Under Consideration for 10+ business days (no interview yet): Reach out to a recruiter on LinkedIn or ask an employee connection for an internal referral. Internal referrals get flagged immediately in Workday and iCIMS.
3. If you already interviewed and are stuck in either status for 7+ business days: Send a polite, low-pressure follow-up email.

Script 1: Following Up Before an Interview (Stuck in Under Consideration 10+ Days)

Subject: Checking in: [Job Title] Application (Req #[ID])

Hi [Recruiter Name],

I applied for the [Job Title] role on [Date] and noticed my application is currently under consideration in your portal. I remain very interested in the team, especially given my recent work in [1-sentence relevant skill or project].

I wanted to share a quick note to confirm my interest and ask if there is a rough timeline for initial screening calls on this opening.

Thanks for your time,
[Your Name]
[Phone Number]

Script 2: Following Up After an Interview (Stuck in Under Review 7+ Business Days)

Subject: Follow-up: [Job Title] Interview

Hi [Recruiter Name],

Thank you again for coordinating my conversation with [Interviewer Name/Team] on [Day]. I really enjoyed learning more about [specific project or goal discussed].

Since it has been a little over a week, I wanted to check in on next steps and see if the team needs any extra details from me while wrapping up reviews.

Best regards,
[Your Name]