Finally caved and started tracking my job applications in a spreadsheet after the 12th rejection

Saw a buddy's doc with columns for follow-up dates and salary ranges, and after 4 months of chaos I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner; anyone else use a colored flag system or is that overkill?

2 comments

2 Comments

fiona_reed5d ago

Oh man, yes. I started mine after rejection number 8 and it was the best thing I ever did for my sanity. I don't do colored flags but I have a status column with plain text labels like "applied", "heard back", "interview scheduled", "rejected", and "ghosted". It sounds simple but it helped me see patterns like which companies actually respond and which job boards were a waste of time. I also track the date I applied and the date I followed up, because I used to just forget about applications entirely. It's not overkill at all. It's basic survival mode in this job market.

joelfoster5d ago

Wait, do you ever color code based on how you heard about the opening? I started doing that after I realized half my apps came from one site that never got back to anyone. @fiona_reed I'm with you on the ghosted label, that's basically half my spreadsheet at this point. I also add a tiny note when I spot a job reposted more than once, because that's usually a red flag they're just collecting resumes. It turned my spreadsheet into a little detective notebook, which sounds crazy but hey, it keeps me from applying to the same dead end places twice.