The job hunt log that makes a bad month legible
Job hunting is high-volume, repetitive admin done at the worst possible time. Thirty applications in, nobody can honestly remember which company asked for a portfolio, who they already spoke to at the firm that has just posted a second role, or which version of the CV went out in week two. The information existed. It was simply never written down.
One row, at the time
The method is not complicated and does not need software. One row per application, filled in the day it goes out, holding the date, the company, the role, where it was advertised, the salary as advertised, the location or remote arrangement, which CV and which cover letter went, the contact and their role, and the stage it has reached. Later you add the interview dates, what was asked, what they said about next steps, a date to follow up on, and the outcome.
The discipline that makes it work is writing the row before you close the tab, not at the weekend. A row written a week later is a summary; a row written at the time is a record.
The two columns people skip
Which CV version went out. The moment an interview is booked, the only document worth re-reading is the exact one that got you it. Six weeks and four drafts later, reconstructing which was which is genuinely hard, and reading the wrong one is worse than reading none.
What was said about next steps, in their words. “They'll be in touch” is a memory. “Said the panel meets on the 14th and they would write either way by the 18th” is a record, and it is the difference between following up on a date and following up on a feeling.
A month, counted
Here is a made-up six weeks, to show what the log gives you that a feeling does not. Twenty-four applications go out, which is 24 ÷ 6 = 4 a week. At the end, the stage column reads: 11 rejected, 8 no response, 4 interviewed, 1 withdrawn by you. That is 11 + 8 + 4 + 1 = 24, so nothing has gone missing.
Two figures fall straight out of it. Applications that produced any human reply: 24 − 8 = 16, which is 16 ÷ 24 = 66.7%. Applications that reached an interview: 4 ÷ 24 = 16.7%, or one in six.
Those are not benchmarks and this page makes no claim about what anyone else's numbers look like. They are yours, about your own six weeks, and they are the only figures on the subject you will ever actually have. Four interviews from twenty-four applications is a month of work. Without the log it is remembered as a month of nothing, because eleven rejections are memorable and nineteen quiet decisions are not.
Why the advertised salary is worth a column
Because it disappears. Adverts are taken down, and the figure that was on the page in March is unrecoverable in October. Twenty of your own logged adverts for your own role, with what each said, is a picture you built from primary sources — and it is what you want in front of you on the day an offer arrives.
And why the rejections are worth keeping
They stop you applying to the same firm twice through a different advert. They remind you who you already spoke to when a second role opens there. A company that turned you down in March is a company that already knows your name in October, and that is a different conversation from a cold one.
What this tool does not do
It stores exactly what you type and nothing else. It watches no date, sends no message and no email, contacts nobody on your behalf, rates no CV, judges no application and forecasts no outcome. Silence from it never means a thing has been handled — it means nobody has looked. Put the follow-up date into whatever calendar actually interrupts you, and use the log to hold the detail behind it.
Nothing is uploaded, either. Where you applied and where you were turned down is not information that belongs on someone else's server; it stays in your browser, and exports to CSV when you want a backup or a copy on another machine.
The Job Application Tracker is that row, with the columns already set up. The method is the part that matters; the tool is only the convenience.