Ask HN: Job seekers – How do you track your applications?

I just search my inbox by company or recruiter name when I need to review correspondence and details for a particular application, I only apply to about one position a month, I use the same resume for every application, and my 'cover letters' are never more than three sentences long.

I don't recommend tracking your applications, just track your email correspondence with the recruiters.

Just came here to say that I have struggled with this in the past too. I used plain text for tracking, and reduced the number of parallel application to something managable as a workaround. I would have loved a sort of CRM that not only keeps track of application and interviews, but also store my homework and personal notes for the interview and similar resources.

EDIT: I also create slightly customized resumes for each type of job I apply to. (E. g. backend, system development.) To keep track of which resume I sent to a particular company, I just keep multiple PDF. The process is tedious, especially when I need to update something in the base resume, like adding an experience or a technology.

Trello has been amazing for this.

I have different columns for the state of the application:

- Unsubmitted/Interested - Submitted/In Process - Recruiter Contact - Phone Interview - In Person Interview - Offer - Lost: Denied - Lost: No Response

In each card, I attach the resume and cover letter (if applicable) that I sent. I have checklists to help prepare for different parts of the interview(s) and use the discussion comments to keep track of communication I have with different people. I've even used the discussion to track interview questions to help better prepare for other interviews (lots of coding screens use similar questions...).

If you wanted to keep contact information with the card, you could use a power up to attach a note from Evernote with contact information if you wanted. I usually just put the name in the discussion though.

I used streak.com a few years ago, which is a Gmail add-on.

Create a pipeline for job applications with relevant stages - applied, heard back, interviewing, offer/no-offer.

Each application is a box. Each box can contain emails, notes, phone calls, tasks etc.

The free version was more than enough for tracking my 100+ applications at the time.

When it's important, I plug it into an Org file with custom states for "Interested", "Submitted", "Responded", "Interview" and so on. Easy to set scheduled times, deadlines, add notes, get overview and all the things Org does so well. I integrate my email with Org as well, so for each step I can paste a link to the email connected to that step.

It can definitely be overwhelming. Try a spreadsheet for tracking, and a calendar app for scheduling. Figure out when you have time to offer, and suggest 2 or 3 times that work for you when scheduling. Don't offer the same times to others until you hear back. Religiously update and follow your calendar app.

For the spreadsheet, similar to mead5432's Trello suggestion, the columns could be:

Date applied | Date last contacted | Company name & role | Screen or interest | Challenge or coffee | Onsite | Offer | Accepted | Notes | Person contacted | Resume & cover letter links

Screen or interest, challenge or coffee, onsite, and offer are binary for me (X or empty), and can help you see if you're getting stuck on a stage. It can help clarify where you can focus your energy to get further. For example, tracking these things might help you realize you get few or no offers but many onsite interviews, and with that awareness you can focus on getting better at onsite interviews.

I'm using jobhound.io for my latest round of applications, and it's worked well as an alternative to a spreadsheet. Jobs are broken up into stages in the pipeline (Plan to Apply, Applied, Interviewing, etc.), and features include attaching notes, setting deadlines, and viewing job hunt metrics. I use my usual calendar app to schedule interviews.

I used to use CapsuleCRM as it had a free tier for people that use google apps, and it synced to my phone.

//edit//And I could also bcc: it in on emails to recruiters and it would keep the emails against the contact for reference.

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In honesty, I use the least-effort solution - Fire-And-Forget. Then again, I'm not applying to a group of highly technical jobs. I do various types of office work, management, and training mostly and I'm near NYC. When I'm in full "search" mode, I can send out 200 resumes/CV applications a day. It's not always the best method, but I find that 2 weeks of that, I usually get a few phone interviews (yep, that's 1K+ sends for 5 or so contacts). Usually one or two of those will turn into something real - I don't call a recruiter "real".