Review applications
You can review the applicants for each of your jobs in a List or a Board (Kanban) view, change each applicant’s status, rate them and keep private notes for your team.
Open applications
Section titled “Open applications”- Open the Employer Dashboard.
- Click Applications in the sidebar (under Hiring). The badge shows your total applicant count.
- Pick a job in the job selector at the top. Until you pick one, the view asks you to select a job.
List view and board view
Section titled “List view and board view”A List / Board toggle sits above the applicants.
- List - applicants on the left, and the selected applicant’s cover letter, application answers, resume and status on the right.
- Board - a Kanban board with one column per status: Submitted, Reviewing, Shortlisted, Hired and Rejected. Drag a card to another column, or use the Move to menu on the card, to change the status. Press Enter or Space (or click) on a card to open the applicant’s details. A note under the board counts applications that are not on it (closed, withdrawn or removed).
Both views are in the free plugin.
What you see for each applicant
Section titled “What you see for each applicant”- The applicant’s name, with initials
- Their email address (in the detail panel)
- The job they applied to
- The date they applied
- Their current status
Filter by status
Section titled “Filter by status”The pills above the list narrow the applicants for the selected job: All, Submitted, Reviewing, Shortlisted, Rejected and Hired. Each pill shows a live count for the whole job, not just the applicants loaded so far.
The dashboard loads 50 applicants at a time. Click Load more applicants at the end of the list for the next 50.
Application statuses
Section titled “Application statuses”| Status | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Submitted | The application arrived and you have not reviewed it |
| Reviewing | You are looking at this candidate |
| Shortlisted | The candidate is worth moving forward |
| Rejected | You are no longer considering this applicant |
| Hired | The offer was accepted and the position is filled |
| Withdrawn | The candidate withdrew. Read-only: you cannot change it |
| Closed | You closed the job before deciding on this applicant. Read-only |
Candidates see Rejected as “Not selected” and Closed as “Position closed”. Withdrawn, Closed and removed-job applications are final. Only reopening the job gives Closed applicants back their earlier status.
Change an applicant’s status
Section titled “Change an applicant’s status”In List view, use the status control in the detail panel. In Board view, drag the card to another column or pick a status in its Move to menu. The change saves at once with no page reload, and the candidate is notified (“Status updated. The candidate has been notified.”). Setting the status the applicant already has changes nothing and sends nothing (“No change. The candidate was not notified.”).
Setting Rejected sends the candidate a “not selected” email in place of the generic status email. Guests who applied with an email address are notified too. If an applicant left no email address, you see “Status updated. This applicant left no email address, so they were not notified.”
Rate applicants and keep notes
Section titled “Rate applicants and keep notes”Open an applicant and find Rating and notes. An applicant nobody has rated shows five empty stars and “Not rated”. Click a star to rate from 1 to 5, and click the same star again to clear it. Add notes for your hiring team below the stars. You can delete your own notes. Only the job’s employer and site staff see ratings and notes. Candidates never do, and they are removed if the application is later anonymised.
Export applicants to CSV
Section titled “Export applicants to CSV”Click Export CSV above the applicants to download the selected job’s applicants as a spreadsheet. See Applicant CSV Export.
Rank applicants by AI fit (Pro)
Section titled “Rank applicants by AI fit (Pro)”With WP Career Board Pro and an AI provider set up, a Rank by AI fit button appears above the applicant list. It scores applicants against the job and shows an AI fit score on each one. Read the full guide in the Pro documentation page “AI features”.
Custom hiring stages (Pro)
Section titled “Custom hiring stages (Pro)”With WP Career Board Pro you can define your own hiring stages, for example Screening, Interview and Offer. See Application Pipeline.
Read the resume
Section titled “Read the resume”The detail panel shows the applicant’s cover letter and their answers to your screening questions. When the applicant attached a resume, it shows View Resume and Download Resume links. Resume files are private: only the candidate, site staff and the employer the candidate applied to can open them.
Contact applicants
Section titled “Contact applicants”Use the applicant’s email address to reach out from your own mail client. The free plugin has no built-in messaging.
When a candidate withdraws
Section titled “When a candidate withdraws”You get an email, and the application stays in your list with a Withdrawn badge. You cannot change its status. The candidate can apply again later, which shows up as a new application.
Who cannot apply
Section titled “Who cannot apply”Employers do not see an Apply button on jobs, and nobody can apply to their own job.