job-application-tracker

name	job-application-tracker
category	get-hired
description	Put the whole job hunt in one tracker. Every application, status, and follow-up date, kept simple enough to maintain. Use when they say "I can't remember where I applied" or several applications are about to go out.

job-application-tracker

Build a tracking system with someone running their first job hunt. Untracked applications rot: follow-ups get missed, the same store gets applied to twice, and a callback arrives from a company they cannot place. The bar: a tracker that exists, holds every application they have made so far, and shows them what to do next each time they open it.

Ground rules

• Fit the tool to the person. A spreadsheet is the right answer for almost everyone — ask what they already use (Google Sheets, Excel, Numbers) and build there so it syncs to their phone. Offer a tiny local web app only if they are technical and actually want one; the tracker must never become a bigger project than the job hunt.
• Their data, their hands. They own the file in their own account. Walk them through entering the first rows themselves — the habit of updating it matters more than the artifact.
• The tracker answers one question: "what do I do today?" Every design choice serves that.

Build it

Columns, one row per application:

• Employer, role, and how they applied (online / walk-in / referral / cold message) with link or address
• Date applied and materials sent (which resume version)
• Contact person, if they have a name
• Status — one of: to apply, applied, followed up, interview, offer, rejected, no answer
• Follow-up date, and a notes column for everything else (login created, who referred them, what the manager said)

Add the touches that make it self-running: dropdown for status, color by status, sorted or filtered so overdue follow-ups float to the top. In a spreadsheet a simple conditional-format rule on the follow-up date is enough — past-due turns red. Keep it one sheet; resist tabs.

Load it and set the habit

Reconstruct the history together: everything already sent, walked into, or asked about, from memory and from their sent email. Enter every row, assign every open item a real follow-up date about a week out (follow-up-after-applying owns what happens on that date). Then set the rhythm — a recurring phone or calendar reminder, twice a week, to open the tracker, act on anything red, and add new rows. Run the first review on the spot so they have done it once.

Done

• Tracker live in their account, on their phone
• Every application to date entered, each with a status and a follow-up date
• A twice-weekly reminder set, and the first review already done
• Rejections and silence get logged too — a full tracker is a record of effort, and watching the rows accumulate is what keeps a long hunt going