What is Candidate Pipeline?
A candidate pipeline is the ordered set of stages every applicant moves through, from application to hire or rejection. Each stage represents a decision point, and stage-to-stage conversion rates reveal precisely where a hiring process loses good candidates.
Last updated July 2026 · Reviewed by the TalentHive product team
Also known as: hiring pipeline, recruitment pipeline
Well-designed pipelines use a fixed, shared stage vocabulary. When stages differ per role or per recruiter, conversion metrics become incomparable and you lose the ability to diagnose the funnel at all.
TalentHive uses a fixed ten-stage model and writes every transition to an immutable history record, so who moved a candidate, when, and from which stage is always reconstructable — the basis of both funnel analytics and compliance defensibility.
The TalentHive pipeline stages
| Stage | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Applied | Application received; scoring and AI interview in progress |
| Voice screened | AI voice interview completed and scored |
| Human review | Recruiter reviews the score, transcript and profile |
| Interview scheduled | Human interview slot confirmed |
| Interview done | Interview completed and feedback collected |
| Shortlisted | Passed interview; under offer consideration |
| Offer extended | Offer sent to the candidate |
| Hired | Offer accepted; onboarding begins |
| Rejected | Candidate is out of process |
| On hold | Paused on timing, compensation or availability |
Related terms
Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
An applicant tracking system (ATS) is software that manages hiring end to end: publishing jobs, receiving and parsing applications, moving candidates through pipeline stages, coordinating interviews and feedback, and recording offers. It is the system of record for every hiring decision an organization makes.
Hiring Funnel
The hiring funnel describes the narrowing progression of candidates from awareness of a role through application, screening, interview, offer and acceptance. Measuring conversion between adjacent stages isolates exactly which step is losing candidates and why.
Time to Hire
Time to hire measures the days between a candidate entering your pipeline and accepting an offer. It reflects the efficiency of your evaluation process. Time to fill, by contrast, counts from when the requisition opens, and so also includes sourcing time.
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