A job search that goes on for more than a couple of weeks outgrows memory. A recruiter rings about "the role you applied for" and you cannot place it. You apply to the same job twice, once direct and once through an agency. An interview is booked for a posting that has since been taken down, and you no longer have the description to prepare from.
A record fixes all three, and it does not need to be elaborate. This guide covers what to keep it in, what is worth writing down for each application, and what is not.
What a record is for
It has three jobs, and everything in it should serve one of them:
- Answering the phone. When someone gets in touch, you can find the application in seconds: which role, when you applied, what you sent, who you spoke to.
- Knowing what to do next. Which applications are waiting on you (a follow-up, a form, preparation for a call) and which are waiting on them.
- Seeing what is working. After a few weeks, which kinds of role get a reply and which do not, so you can change what you apply for.
A column that serves none of these is one you will stop filling in, and a record with gaps is trusted less than no record.
A spreadsheet or a tracker
There are two sensible places to keep it: a spreadsheet you set up yourself, or a job tracker, an app built for the purpose, usually a board with a column per stage. Neither is better outright. They differ in where the effort goes.
| A spreadsheet | A tracker | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free. | Often free to a point, then a subscription. |
| Adding a job | Typed or pasted in, a field at a time. | Usually saved from the posting in a click. |
| The posting itself | A link, which stops working when the posting comes down, unless you paste it in. | Most keep a copy. Check that yours does. |
| History | One cell per row, so a long exchange gets cramped or overwritten. | Notes, usually dated, one after another. |
| Seeing where things stand | Sort or filter by the stage column. | A board, a column per stage. |
| Shape | Whatever you want: any column, any formula, any chart. | What the app gives you. |
| Your data | A file you own. | In someone else's product. Look for an export before you rely on it. |
Start with a spreadsheet if you are applying to a few jobs a week and you like things your own way. Move to a tracker when the record keeps falling behind the search, which is nearly always because adding a row is a chore. The best record is the one you actually keep up.
What is worth recording for each application
The company and the role
The title as the posting has it, not as you would put it. That is what a recruiter will say on the phone.
The posting, not only its link
Postings are taken down when a role closes to new applicants, often well before the interviews. Save the text of the description when you apply: it is what you prepare from, and it is what you sent your application against.
Where you found it and how you applied
LinkedIn, the company's site, a named agency. This is what stops a second application to the same job by another route, which agencies and employers both notice.
The date you applied
And the date of each move after it. How long an application has sat at a stage is what tells you whether to chase it or let it go.
The stage
One of a short fixed list. The next section has the one we use.
Who you have dealt with
The recruiter, the hiring manager, anyone who interviewed you, with how to reach them. Note whether each is at the employer or an agency.
What you sent
Which version of your CV, and what your covering note or message led with. If you are asked about a claim in an interview, you want to know which claim you made.
The next step and its date
One line: "Chase on the 14th", "Tech test due Friday", "Waiting on them". This is the column you read every morning, so it is the one to keep honest.
A note after every conversation
Written the same day, while you remember it: what they asked, what they said about the team, the pay and the process, and what you promised to send. Add the pay here as soon as anyone names a figure, with who named it.
How it ended
Rejected, withdrawn, no reply, offer, and at which stage. A sentence of feedback if you were given any. This is the part that shows what is working.
What is not worth recording
- Every job you looked at. The record is for applications and the jobs you have decided to apply for. Everything else is noise around them.
- A score out of ten for how much you want it. It changes with every conversation, and the notes say it better.
- Facts about the company you can look up again. Headcount, funding, the office address. Look them up before the interview, when they are current.
- More stages than you act on. "Phone screen", "first interview" and "final interview" are all one stage with a note saying which.
The stages
Four are enough, and each should mean one thing about whose move it is:
| Stage | What it means |
|---|---|
| Shortlisted | You have decided to apply and have not yet. Your move. |
| Applied | Your move is made, by an application, a message to someone on the posting, or both. You are waiting to hear back. |
| Interviewing | They have replied and there is a conversation going, from a first call to an offer. |
| Closed | It is over, whichever way. Keep the row. |
There is no separate stage for having written to the recruiter. Writing to someone and applying happen in either order, or at once, and a stage for each only leaves you unsure which column a job belongs in. Who you wrote to goes in the notes.
Keeping it up
Two habits are enough. Add the row at the moment you apply, not at the end of the day, since the end of the day is when it does not happen. And go down the next-step column once a morning: act on what is due, and close what has been silent for longer than you are prepared to wait. A closed row can always be reopened if they come back.
The pipeline in Job Puffin
Job Puffin starts a step earlier than a tracker does. The Chrome extension sends a LinkedIn search to your inbox, each posting is rated against your CV, and you read the best fits first (the method is in Is this job worth applying for?). The jobs you decide to pursue go to the pipeline with "Add to pipeline", so nothing is typed in. From there it keeps most of what this guide lists:
- A board with the four stages above: shortlisted, applied, interviewing, closed. Drag a card to move a job on, or up and down to put a column in your own order.
- The posting, kept. The description and the people named on it are stored when the job is sent over, along with its rating and the reasons, so they are still there after LinkedIn takes the posting down.
- The dates, without typing them. Each job has a timeline: when it came in from LinkedIn, when it was added to the pipeline, and every move between stages since.
- Notes on the same timeline, each dated as you write it: who you spoke to, what was said, what happens next.
- A first message drafted for you to someone named on the posting, written from your CV and the posting, for you to edit and send yourself.
- One pipeline, however many kinds of role you are searching for, since a job is applied for once.
What it does not do: it takes jobs from LinkedIn only, so an application made elsewhere still needs a row somewhere else. It has no reminders, and no separate fields for pay or contacts' details, which go in the notes. And it never applies or sends anything for you. The pipeline is on every plan, the free one included; the plans differ in how many postings are rated.
Questions
- Is a spreadsheet good enough to track job applications?
- Yes, for most searches. A spreadsheet with one row per application and a handful of columns does the job, costs nothing and is yours to keep. It starts to strain when every row has to be typed in by hand, when the posting it links to has been taken down, and when the history of a conversation has to fit in one cell.
- What columns should a job application spreadsheet have?
- The company and role, a link to the posting, the date you applied, the stage it is at, who you have dealt with, the next step with its date, and notes. Add the pay discussed once someone names a figure. Anything more than that tends to go unfilled.
- Should I track jobs I haven't applied for yet?
- Only the ones you have decided to apply for. A shortlist of jobs you mean to apply to is useful; a list of every job you looked at is a second inbox, and it buries the applications that are live.
- How long should I keep a record after a rejection?
- Until the search is over, at least. Recruiters come back with other roles, companies repost, and knowing you applied to the same team in the spring, and how far you got, changes what you do the second time.
- How many stages does a tracker need?
- Four is enough: shortlisted, applied, interviewing and closed. More stages mean more moving of rows and no more information, since what happened inside a stage belongs in the notes.
