Give candidates a clear view of where they are in your hiring process, without exposing your internal stage names.
Create a group of candidate-facing stages by mapping your internal stages to a standard set of names. You can add descriptions to explain what candidates should expect at each step. It's a simple way to improve transparency, reduce recruiter follow-up, and create a more polished candidate experience.
Note: Candidate-facing stage names come from a standard set. Legacy stage setups keep showing their current names to candidates. To edit one of these setups, first map its stages to the standard names.
Overview
MyGreenhouse Stages let you give candidates a clear view of your hiring process without sharing internal stage names with them.
Create a group of candidate-facing stages by mapping your internal stages to a standard set of names. You can add descriptions to explain what candidates should expect at each step.
Stages are created at the department level and apply to all jobs in that department. Once published, candidates see the stages for the job they applied to and the description for the stage they're currently in. Stages update automatically as you move candidates through your internal process, with no extra emails or manual updates from your team.
Set up MyGreenhouse Stages
To create candidate-facing stages, go to Configure > MyGreenhouse and scroll to "MyGreenhouse Stages." Select Create new to get started.
Internal setup
First, complete the internal setup:
Give the setup an internal name. This name is not visible to candidates.
Choose the departments the setup applies to.
When published, candidates who apply to jobs in the selected departments can see their current candidate-facing stage on their application in MyGreenhouse.
Create stages
Give each stage a candidate-facing name from the standard set, then select which internal stages map to it. You can add multiple internal stages to each candidate-facing stage.
Add a description in the "Stage description for candidates" field. This is where you add context specific to your organization, like what to prepare or how long a step usually takes. Each stage has a default description you can use as-is or replace.
Candidate-facing stage names
You choose which stages apply to a job and what order they appear in. You can't change the candidate-facing names, but you can edit the description candidates read for each one.
Every setup starts with In review, which you can't remove. It must map to at least one Application Review stage.
| Candidate-facing name | Default description (editable) |
| In review | Our hiring team is reviewing your application. |
| Initial screen | You have an initial screen coming up. |
| Hiring team interview | You have an interview with a member of the hiring team. |
| Team interview | You're meeting with members of the team. |
| Technical interview | You'll be assessed on technical or job-specific skills, often through problem-solving or a working session. |
| Assessment | You'll complete an assessment, like a case study, live assessment, or working session, to show how you approach work. |
| Onsite interview | You'll meet with team members in person (or remotely by video) across one or more interviews. |
| Executive interview | You have an interview with a senior leader. |
| Reference check | We're checking your references. |
| Background check | We're running a standard background check. This is a required step before your offer can be finalized. |
| Offer | We've extended an offer for this role and shared the details with you. |
Greenhouse Recruiting sets three more stages automatically. These don't appear in your setup, and they aren't editable:
- Applied, which candidates see when they submit an application
- Hired, which candidates see when they accept an offer
- Application closed, which candidates see when you reject their application
Preview stages
As you build your stages, review the stage list in the right side panel for a view of how the stages will look to candidates.
Publish stages
When you're happy with your setup, save your draft. Then, return to MyGreenhouse Stages and toggle the Status from Draft to Live.
You can edit, unpublish, or customize stage descriptions from this page at any time. If you edit a legacy setup, you must remap it to standardized labels first.
Update an existing stage setup
Legacy stage setups use custom names. These setups keep showing their current names to candidates, and you don't need to change anything to keep them running.
To edit one of these setups, first map each of its stages to a standard candidate-facing name. In Greenhouse Recruiting, these setups have a Needs update tag in the stage setups table.
Note: You can't publish a setup that has a Needs update tag. A live setup with this tag keeps running and you can set it to draft, but you can't set it back to live until you map its stages to the standard names.
Go to Configure > MyGreenhouse, scroll to MyGreenhouse stages, and select the setup you want to update.
In the stage mapping step, you'll see a warning that says Update needed: map your stages. Each stage that still uses your own name shows a Previously: hint with the name you used, so you can find the closest match.
Select a candidate-facing name for each stage, then review the descriptions. Select Preview to check how the stages look, then save the setup.
To share the updated setup with candidates, return to the MyGreenhouse settings page and set the setup to Live.