Job application tracker
A tracker exists so you can answer two questions later: what did I already send this employer, and which resume did they see? Anything that does not serve those questions is optional. A guessed chance of hearing back, a score you invented, or a mood recorded as if it were a status will not help you decide the next application.
One row per application
The same employer can post two roles, and you can apply to both with different resumes. One row per employer hides that. One row per application keeps the role, the file, and the follow-up attached to the right opening.
If you started an application and did not send it, either leave it off or mark it as unsent in words you will not confuse with sent. A tracker full of maybes is a second inbox.
The fields that answer a later question
Keep the employer name as you will search for it, the title as posted, and the location or remote wording they used. Keep a link, or enough of the posting, that you can tell this opening from a later one. Keep where you found it: the company site, a board, or a person.
Keep the day you sent it, in whatever date form your sheet uses, and the name of the resume file that went. Keep a contact only if you actually have one, and how you know the address is theirs. Keep the follow-up you already sent so you do not send it twice.
The resume version is part of the record
Write which emphasis you changed, in a few words, next to the file name. "Moved the clinic bullets up" is useful. "Tailored" is not, because every row would say that.
If you correct the file later, do not overwrite the sent copy. Add a new name. The row should still point at what they received. Future you will not remember the difference, and a reply will ask about the version they have.
Status words you can verify
Use words you could prove: sent, they replied, a conversation is booked, they asked for an assessment, an offer, closed, no reply yet. "No reply yet" is a fact. "They hated it" is a story. "Likely" is a guess.
Update a status only when something happened that you can point at: a message, a closed posting, a date on a calendar. Do not refresh the sheet hoping a status will appear. The sheet stores what you know. It does not create news.
A sheet is enough
A simple table you will actually open beats a system you abandon. Columns for employer, role, where you found it, file sent, status, and follow-up cover the decisions. Add a column when you feel its absence, not because a template had it.
Put the sheet somewhere you control. If you are employed, that is not an account your employer owns. The while-employed guide is the longer version of that boundary. A tracker that your manager can open is not a private record.
What to leave out
Leave out a probability, a rank against other people, and a score you assigned to your own resume. Those numbers feel like progress and they are fiction. Leave out gossip about the employer that you would not want repeated.
Also leave out a copied posting in full if the link still works and you do not need the text. Keep the text only when the posting may vanish and you will need the duties later to remember what you claimed.
Set up a tracker you will still open
Make one row per application
Employer plus role, not employer alone. Two roles at one company are two rows.
Record the posting and the source
Title, place or remote wording, a link or a saved description, and where you found it.
Point at the resume you sent
File name, plus a few words on what you emphasized. Keep that file.
Use a status you can prove
Sent, replied, conversation, assessment, offer, closed, or no reply yet. No guessed odds.
Log any note you sent
Who, and that it happened, so the next follow-up does not duplicate it.
Read the sheet before you apply again
Search the employer. If the role is already there, stop.
Related reading
Questions
- Is a spreadsheet good enough?
- Yes. The test is whether you open it before the next application and can find the resume you sent. A fancier tool that you avoid is worse.
- Should I track roles I only considered?
- Only if you can tell them from roles you submitted. A mixed list makes "did I already apply?" a guessing game.
- What if I do not know the status?
- Write "no reply yet" until something you can point at arrives. Do not invent a stage to make the column look alive.
Where ApplyASAP fits
ApplyASAP keeps this record for the applications the team sends: the company, the opening, and the resume that went out. You can mark what the company said when you know it. That list does not invent a reply, and it does not replace a note about a conversation you had on your own. If you write one, keep it with the row.
ApplyASAP is one option when you want the sending done for you. It finds openings for the titles and places you name, tailors your resume to each posting, and does not invent employers, dates, degrees, titles, numbers, certifications, or people you managed. It answers the application questions, and the team sends and tracks each application. Skills it adds are ones your role and level usually carry, and you can take any of them off. The resume still has to be true.