What does "no longer under consideration" mean?
You open the portal expecting the usual nothing. Instead: "No longer under consideration." A rejection, written like the minutes of a committee meeting.
"No longer under consideration" means the employer has ended your candidacy for that specific role. It is a rejection. It does not tell you why, and it does not always mean a person decided: a hiring decision, an automatic rule or a closed role can all end in the same status.
Short version: that one door is shut. Nothing says the building is. Here is what you can and cannot read into it.
Is "no longer under consideration" a rejection?
Yes. The City of Tucson's careers page defines its "Not Selected" status in exactly those words: no longer under consideration. Other employers use other labels for the same end state. According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison's HR guide to Workday Recruiting, a candidate whose application is declined for any reason except withdrawing sees the status "Completed" and finds the job under the Inactive tab.
"Completed." As if you had finished a course. Same ending, different word. HR software does enjoy a ceremony.
Did a person reject you?
Not always. Greenhouse documents an auto-reject feature: an employer can set a rule on an application question, such as a yes or no question, so that a particular answer rejects the applicant automatically. The employer chooses whether the rule also sends an email. It is a setting, so whether it touched your application depends on the employer.
Greenhouse's guidance on rejection reasons hints at the rest. Its examples of reasons an employer might record include better qualified candidates selected, the position being eliminated or put on hold, a failed background check, and the company not wishing to sponsor a work visa. Greenhouse supplies default reasons, and employers can create their own.
| Possible cause | Who or what decided |
|---|---|
| Recruiter or hiring-manager review | A person |
| Answer to an application question (work authorisation, location) | A rule the employer set, or a person reading the answer |
| Role filled, put on hold or closed | The business, not your application |
| Internal candidate selected | A person, not about you |
Half that table has nothing to do with you. You will not know which half you landed in. So do not write a story around one line of portal text. It is a guess dressed up as a verdict.
Does it mean you are banned from the company?
Nothing in the vendor and employer pages we read describes a ban. A status like this attaches to one application for one role.
Employers do keep records, though. The same Greenhouse guidance notes that if a candidate reapplies, the system flags them as a duplicate and shows their past rejection reason on their profile. So a recruiter using it can see that you were rejected before, and why. A record, not a ban. Whether a particular employer keeps its own do-not-hire list is not something any vendor page we read covers.
Applying to a second role that really fits you is normal. Applying to product manager, accountant, UX researcher, legal counsel and VP Sales in the same week is a different strategy, and it reads like one. More in Can you apply to more than one job at the same company?.
Should you ask why you were rejected?
If you never spoke to anybody, detailed feedback is unlikely. The University of Arizona's career centre notes that some companies have policies against providing feedback after an application, and suggests asking only if the message came from a recruiter or someone on the hiring team, not a no-reply address. Replying to noreply@ is shouting into a drain.
If you interviewed, asking is more reasonable. Keep it this short:
Do not argue. Do not send a rebuttal. The rejection email is not the first round of an appeals process.
Should you reapply to the same role?
Our view, not a rule: if the same posting shows up a week later, probably not, unless something material changed. If it reopens months later and your experience has moved on, it can make sense. If a recruiter explicitly invites you back, obviously yes.
What should you do next?
Write it down, and write down where it happened: before a recruiter screen, after a screen, after an interview, or after a final round. One rejection is noise. A pile of them is a pattern.
If almost every rejection comes before any conversation, look at targeting and how the resume reads against the job. See Does an ATS automatically reject resumes?. If you regularly reach interviews, your materials are doing their job and the work is somewhere else.
A rejection still hurts. It just tells you something different depending on where it happens.
HUNT logs the status of every application, including the rejections, so the pattern is on one board instead of in your head. See how applying works.
Related: What does "in process" mean?, Does an ATS automatically reject resumes? and Can you apply to more than one job at the same company?.
Published
Sources
- Check the Status of a Job Application, City of Tucson.One employer defines Not Selected as no longer under consideration.
- Candidate View, by Job Application Status, University of Wisconsin-Madison Human Resources.UW-Madison's guide to Workday Recruiting: an application declined for any reason except withdrawal shows as Completed under the Inactive tab.
- Auto-reject, Greenhouse Support.An employer can set a rule on a yes/no, single-select or multi-select question so an answer rejects the applicant automatically; sending an email is optional.
- Best practices: Strategic use of rejection reasons, Greenhouse Support.Example rejection reasons (better qualified candidates selected, position eliminated or on hold, failed background check, no visa sponsorship), default and custom reasons, and reapplicants flagged as duplicates with their past rejection reason shown.
- How to Follow Up After Applying for a Job, The University of Arizona Center for Career Readiness.Some companies have policies against giving post-application feedback; ask only if a recruiter or hiring-team member wrote to you, not a no-reply address.