Top 10% of our candidate pool,

Question

I got a message from a company, in which they said "you're in the top 10% of our candidate pool". Please, what does that mean?

Answer 1

It means they are telling you that

• they have multiple candidates, not just you (they have a "candidate pool")
• they have a ranking system to rank the candidates, including you
• your rank is within the top 10% out of the total size of the candidate pool

This type of message is often meant to be encouraging, and hints that you may have a good chance of receiving a job offer.