Rejecting a candidate
Rejecting a candidate records the decision, preserves the reason, and optionally sends a rejection email. Only Super Admins and Hiring Managers can reject or restore candidates.
Reject a candidate
- Open Candidates from the dashboard sidebar.
- Select the candidate you want to reject.
- Open the Rejection tab in the candidate profile.
- Select Reject Candidate.
- Choose a Rejection Reason. A reason is required.
- Add an Internal Note if the hiring team needs additional context. This note is visible only to your team.
- If you want to notify the candidate, enable Send Rejection Email.
- Choose an email template. A template is required when sending an email.
- Select Confirm Reject.
Available reasons include lack of required skills, insufficient experience, compensation mismatch, culture or team fit concerns, changed role requirements, candidate withdrawal, and Other.
What happens after rejection
OpenATS changes the candidate status to Rejected and removes the candidate from the active stage in the job pipeline. The rejection record stores the reason, optional internal note, previous stage, person who made the decision, and email status.
If an email was enabled, OpenATS renders the selected email template with the candidate and job details, then sends it to the candidate. The Rejection tab shows whether the email was sent.
If you do not enable the email option, the decision is still recorded and no message is sent automatically. You can contact the candidate separately when appropriate.
Review rejection history
Return to the candidate's Rejection tab to review previous rejection records, reasons, internal notes, and email status. This history remains available for the hiring team.
Restore a rejected candidate
If the decision needs to be reversed, open the rejected candidate's Rejection tab and select Unreject Candidate. OpenATS restores the candidate to the stage they occupied before rejection, or to the first stage if that stage is no longer available, and changes the status back to active.