In a recruiting application, all users should be able to see positions with a status...

Set the organization-wide default for positions to public read-only, then use a sharing rule to restrict access to closed positions.

Specify view only access for open positions on users' profiles.

Set the organization-wide default for positions to private, then use a criteria-based sharing rule to automatically share open positions.

Set the organization-wide default for positions to private, allowing owners to use manual sharing to add or remove access as positions change status.