Pipelines explained: templates vs job-specific stages

What a hiring pipeline is in CVViZ

A Hiring Pipeline is a named sequence of stages a candidate moves through. In CVViZ, pipelines are organization-level — they're configured once at Settings → Hiring Pipelines and reused across jobs (typically scoped by department or location).

The page header reads "Hiring Pipelines" with the subtitle "Create and manage custom hiring workflows for your recruitment process".

The two layers

CVViZ separates two concerns:

• The master stage list — a fixed catalog of 50+ status codes that ship with CVViZ (New, Phone Screened, Interviewed, Job Offered, Offer Accepted, Joined, Rejected, etc.). Each has an ID, label, and color.
• Hiring Pipelines — your custom workflows that pick from (and order) those stages into a meaningful sequence for a department or role family.

You don't invent stages from scratch — you build a pipeline from the catalog. This keeps reporting consistent across pipelines.

Important master stages

The catalog is large, but these are the most-used:

• New (code 0) — applicant just entered.
• Phone Screened (code 3).
• Interviewed (code 15) — with sub-stages like 1st Interview Invited / Accepted / Scheduled / Passed.
• Job Offered (code 60) — triggers extra fields on the status form (final salary, currency).
• Offer Accepted (code 62).
• Joined (code 999) — the terminal positive outcome.
• Rejected (code -99) — with sub-reasons: Interview Reject, Job Offer Reject, Phone Screen Reject, Not Shortlisted, Internal Screening Reject, Rejected by Client, Rejected by Partner, Rejected by AM.
• Not Interested (code -5).

Sub-stages (parent / child)

Many master stages have sub-stages via a relationship. For example, "Interviewed" has children like "1st Interview Invited", "1st Interview Accepted", "1st Interview Scheduled", "1st Interview Passed". You select sub-stages independently when moving a candidate.

Default pipeline

One pipeline can be marked as default — saved with the localStorage key. New jobs reach for the default unless overridden.

Each pipeline has these fields:

• workflow_name — display name.
• steps — ordered stages.
• is_default — your default flag.
• is_system_default — CVViZ's shipped baseline.
• department_id, location — optional scoping.

Choosing the right structure

• Keep it short. 4–7 stages cover most processes. Long pipelines become unreadable.
• Mirror real decision points. "Phone Screen" is a decision; "5-minute intro call" usually isn't.
• Always include Rejected. Otherwise reporting can't tell what happened to dropped candidates.
• Use sub-stages for fine-grained tracking only if you'll actually look at them in reports.

Where to manage

Settings → Hiring Pipelines. The button to start a new one reads Add Hiring Pipeline.