When you're applying to a few jobs, keeping track of them doesn't feel like something you need a system for. You remember the companies you liked, the applications you sent last week, and the recruiter you're waiting to hear back from. At least, that works until there are enough applications that they start looking very similar.

I noticed it when recruiters started replying to applications I'd sent two or three weeks earlier. I'd recognize the company name but not necessarily the role, so before answering I'd have to search my inbox, find the vacancy again and try to remember why I'd applied in the first place. Sometimes the job post had already been removed, which made preparing for the call even more annoying.

LinkedIn didn't really solve this for me either. I had jobs in Saved, others I'd applied to through Easy Apply, and applications I'd completed on company websites. A month later, I could open a vacancy and discover that I'd already applied without having any memory of doing it. Once my job search became more active, I needed one place where I could see what I'd applied to and what had happened afterwards.

What to track in your job applications

I started with a spreadsheet because it was the most obvious option. The first version had far too many columns, because when you create a tracker it's tempting to record everything that might possibly become useful later. In practice, I only looked at a small part of that information, while all the extra fields made updating the spreadsheet more tedious.

The information I actually needed was much simpler:

• Company and job title — enough to immediately identify the application.
• Vacancy link — useful when you need to check the requirements again before an interview.
• Date applied — so you know how long you've been waiting and whether it's worth following up.
• Status — saved, applied, interview, offer or rejected.
• Salary — if it was mentioned in the vacancy or during a recruiter call.
• Notes — anything worth remembering about the company, role or conversation.

There are situations where a few extra fields make sense. If you're applying internationally, location and remote policy can be useful; if you're using referrals, you may want to record who referred you. I wouldn't add information just because a job application tracker gives you somewhere to put it, though. The more work the system requires after every application, the more likely you are to stop updating it.

The best way to track job applications depends on how much you're applying

A spreadsheet is honestly enough for many people. If you're sending a handful of applications each week, a Google Sheet with company, position, date, link, status and notes gives you most of what you need. Notion works similarly and is a little nicer if you prefer seeing applications as cards that you can move between stages.

For me, spreadsheets became inconvenient when I started applying more actively. After reading the vacancy, checking the company, adjusting my CV and filling in the application form, I didn't particularly want to open another tab and copy everything into a spreadsheet. I'd think I'd update it later, continue looking at jobs, and eventually have several applications missing from the tracker.

This became especially noticeable with LinkedIn Easy Apply. The whole point of Easy Apply is that sending an application takes very little time, so manually documenting it afterwards can take almost as long as applying. After sending several applications in one session, I often remembered the interesting companies but couldn't tell you much about the rest a few weeks later.

That's why I'd choose a tracking method based less on how many features it has and more on how easy it is to maintain. Google Sheets or Notion are perfectly good options if you don't mind entering applications manually. If you're applying frequently, a dedicated job application tracker can save enough repetitive work that you're more likely to keep using it.

A simple system for keeping track of applications

Regardless of the tool, the structure that has worked best for me is a simple pipeline. Instead of keeping one long list of companies and adding notes about what happened, I give every vacancy a status and move it when something changes.

Mine is roughly: Saved → Applied → Interview → Offer / Rejected

Saved is useful because I don't always apply immediately after finding a vacancy. Sometimes I see something on LinkedIn while I'm doing something else, or I want to look at the company properly before deciding whether it's worth applying. Keeping those jobs next to my actual applications means I don't end up with 40 LinkedIn bookmarks that I never open again.

You can make the interview stage more detailed if you regularly go through longer hiring processes. Recruiter call, hiring manager interview, test assignment and final interview can all be separate stages, but I wouldn't add them before you actually need them. For everyday use, I mostly want to open my tracker and understand within a few seconds which companies I'm waiting for and which ones need something from me.

Keep the job description, not just the company name

Vacancy links are useful, but they're not always reliable. Companies often close or remove a job posting once they have enough candidates, and sometimes that happens before they contact you. You can end up getting an interview invitation for a role whose original description you can no longer access.

That happened to me enough times that I started keeping the important information from vacancies rather than relying only on the URL. Before an interview, I want to reread the responsibilities and requirements, see which skills the company emphasized and remind myself what made the position interesting to me. It also makes preparing examples from my own experience much easier because I'm working from the actual description instead of a vague memory of the role.

If your tracker lets you save the vacancy itself, that's ideal. If you're using a spreadsheet, you can copy the most important parts into your notes or save the description somewhere else. It takes a little more space, but it's much better than trying to reconstruct a deleted LinkedIn posting the night before an interview.

Track interviews as well as applications

For the first few weeks, I mostly used my tracker to remember where I'd applied. Once there were enough applications in it, I became much more interested in what happened to them. Seeing 60 applications in a list isn't particularly informative, but seeing that those applications produced eight interviews gives you something you can actually work with.

For example, if you've sent 50 applications and received only two replies, I'd look at the beginning of the process. The roles might not match your experience closely enough, or your CV and portfolio might not be communicating that match clearly. Sending another 50 applications without changing anything may simply give you another 50 similar results.

If the same 50 applications produce 15 first interviews but almost no second rounds, the situation looks different. Your CV is already getting you into conversations, so rewriting it again probably isn't the first thing I'd focus on. Interview preparation, the examples you're using or the way you're explaining your experience become much more interesting areas to look at.

This is why I find it useful to think of the job search as a funnel: Applications → Interviews → Next rounds → Offers

You don't need hundreds of applications or sophisticated statistics for this to be useful. Even a relatively small sample can show you that one part of your job search is working better than another. I find that much more helpful than looking at the total number of applications and trying to decide whether I've sent “enough.”

Keep a few notes after interviews

When several companies are interviewing you around the same time, conversations start mixing together faster than you'd expect. One recruiter mentioned a salary range, another told you the team was being rebuilt, and someone else described a project that sounded genuinely interesting. A week later, you may remember all three details without being completely sure which company they belonged to.

I usually add a few notes shortly after an interview while I still remember the conversation. I write down the questions that were difficult, what I learned about the team, any salary information and what they said would happen next. I also keep my own impressions because those are surprisingly easy to forget once you're focused on getting through the hiring process.

Before the next interview, these notes save me from trying to reconstruct the previous conversation from emails and calendar events. They're also useful if several processes eventually reach the later stages, because I can compare companies based on what was actually discussed rather than whichever conversation I remember most clearly.