Top 5 strategies to effectively track your job applications

Mastering your job hunt using the right strategy.

by João | 03 Jun 2025

In the competitive job market, managing and tracking your applications is crucial. This article explores five effective strategies to help you stay organised, informed, and in control of your job application journey. Whether you're a fresh graduate entering the job market, an experienced professional seeking a career change or someone impacted by layoffs, these tips will enhance your chances of landing that dream job.

1. Spreadsheets

Strategy:

You can use a spreadsheet to track your job applications. Tools like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel can help you create a comprehensive database, even more so if you use a specialised template designed for job application tracking.

Quick summary and best practices:

Create detailed columns: Include columns for company name, job title, application date, follow-up dates, contact information, and status.
Use conditional formatting: Highlight important details like upcoming follow-ups or interview dates.
Regular updates: Make it a habit to update your spreadsheet daily to ensure all information is current.
Sort and filter: Use sorting and filtering features to quickly find applications based on specific criteria.

Pros:

Customisation: Tailor the spreadsheet to meet your specific needs.
Cost-effective: Free tools like Google Sheets or basic Excel versions are sufficient.

Cons:

Manual updates required: All information must be manually entered and updated.
No reminders or automations: You need to remember checklists for follow-ups and there’s no automation.
Sheet clutter: The spreadsheet can become cluttered with extensive notes or job advert copies.

Best suited for:

Detail-oriented individuals: If you’re meticulous and enjoy customising all the details.
Budget-conscious job seekers: Ideal for those who prefer free or low-cost solutions.

2. Online job tracking tools

Strategy:

Use online platforms and apps specifically designed for tracking job applications, such as Laburo, which integrates advanced features to streamline your job hunting process and the way you manage your job applications.

Quick summary and best practices:

Automatic capture: Capture job details from the advert link, auto-filling the tracking details saving you time on manual data input.
Set up reminders: Use the reminder feature to ensure you follow up on time and don’t miss important dates.
Set up job advert monitoring: Set up monitoring for each job advert.
Job specific fields: Capture more details specific to job adverts allowing you to adopt job application best practices.

Pros:

Automation: Automatic capture of job adverts and application details.
Job advert monitoring: Automatically checks if the job adverts are still available, saving you time and stress.
Insights and analytics: Provides insights into your job search effectiveness with detailed analytics.

Cons:

~~Cost: Most dedicated tools like require a subscription, although they often offer free trials.~~ Laburo is free!
Learning curve: May take time to get accustomed to all the features.

Best suited for:

Tech-savvy job seekers: Those comfortable with new software and willing to leverage technology.
Busy professionals: Ideal for people needing automated tool, quick updates and insights into their job search performance.
Job seekers looking for comprehensive features: Those who want to take advantage of functionalities like automatic job advert capture and detailed analytics.

3. Email inbox: folders and tags

Strategy:

Use your email inbox to track job applications by creating folders and labels for each application.

Quick summary and best practices:

Dedicated folder: Create a folder labeled "Job Applications”.
Sub-folders: Use sub-folders for each company or job title to keep things organised.
Labels and Tags: Use labels like “Applied,” “Follow-up Needed,” or “Interview Scheduled” to categorise emails.
Auto-forwarding: Set up rules to automatically move job-related emails into the appropriate folder.

Pros:

Centralised location: All application-related emails are in one place. Even follow-up emails.
Free solution: No additional cost since you’re using your existing email service.

Cons:

Inbox clutter: Can lead to a cluttered inbox if not managed properly.
Manual organisation required: Need to manually file and label each email.

Best suited for:

Email-centric individuals: Those who prefer managing their job applications and search through email.
Casual job seekers: Suited for those not applying to a large number of jobs.

4. Task management apps

Strategy:

If you’re already familiar with them, you can leverage task management apps like Trello, or Asana to keep track of your job applications.

Quick summary and best practices:

Create tasks: For each application, create a task with the company name and job title.
Set deadlines: Add due dates for follow-ups, interviews, or application deadlines.
Attach notes: Use the notes feature to add details like contact information or follow-up actions.
Visual boards: Use Trello’s board view to visually track the progress of each application.

Pros:

Versatile: These tools are not just for job hunting; they can manage other aspects of your life too.
Visual organisation: Use boards, lists, or Kanban views to visually organise your job applications.

Cons:

Not job-specific: Lacks features and automations specific to job tracking.
Manual entry needed: Requires manual input of application details.
Card clutter: Cards can become pretty unreadable if you add details like extensive notes or job advert copies.

Best suited for:

Organised multitaskers: Those who have multiple responsibilities and prefer a single tool for all tasks.
Visual learners: Individuals who benefit from visual organisation methods and are already familiar with these tools.

5. Physical Planner or Notebook

Strategy:

For a lot of us there’s still something appealing about a pen and a notebook. You can use a physical planner or notebook to manually track your job applications.

Quick summary and best practices:

Dedicated section: Create a specific section for job applications.
Daily updates: Write down details of each application as soon as you apply.
Follow-up dates: Include follow-up dates and any important deadlines.
Status updates: Mark the status of each application with symbols or colours.

Pros:

Tactile experience: For those who prefer physical writing for better recall.
No tech dependency: No reliance on digital tools or internet connections.

Cons:

Limited accessibility: Not easily accessible from multiple devices.
Manual updates required: Need to manually update and carry the planner.

Best suited for:

Traditionalists: Those who prefer writing things down.
Offline usage: Ideal for those who dislike digital solutions.

My personal experience

I used a mix of some strategies described above to keep my job applications organised.

Trello for tracking job application

I am quite used to task management apps, so Trello felt like a natural choice to track job application, especially for tracking their status. The free account is more than enough, but though it excelled on visualising job applications through a Kanban-style view, it felt short on other areas.

I struggled to keep consistency in the data I was capturing and its order, leading at times to disorganised or inconsistent card content. Also, I learned soon enough to keep a carbon copy of the job advert as it was not uncommon for one to get called for a screening after the original job advert was removed 🤦‍♂️.

Notebook app for job details and notes

Bear app is my notebook of choice on the Mac, mostly due to its Markdown support. I used Bear notes where I disliked Trello: keeping all the more extensive notes and job advert copy around for easy reference.

Google docs for resumes and cover letters

Still using this one. I keep different versions of my resume and personalised cover letters neatly organised in Google Docs. Document tabs were a great addition as I can keep the resume and cover letter as tabs in the same application document.

I would link to these documents from the notes app as I eventually ended up using Trello for tracking status only and Bear app for all the details and notes for each application.

I felt this mix gave me a good coverage of all the job applications and allowed me to keep control and stay organised. But you can see how time-consuming and overwhelming this process was, right? Inevitably leading to quite a bit of frustration.

My biggest pain points

I had to manually collect all the information or endless copy/paste at best.
I was ghosted for most of my applications and had to manually check if the job adverts I applied to were still online, so I could move on if not.
Trello is great for tracking status of applications but it becomes really cluttered making it hard to keep consistency in the data captured, especially if I added too much information. Trying to get a copy of the job advert was usually not an option for me.
No data and no metrics. It was hard to keep track of what was working and not working as I could not measure it.

My solution

This is why I decided to build Laburo, a free job application tracking tool that aims to address all my previous pain-points and much more:

Track job application status.
Easy centralised data management of all the details for each job application.
- Link to cloud docs tailored to each application like resumes and cover letters.
AI tools to extract job details from the job advert link, thus saving all the time spent on manual data input.
Insights and analytics about the effectiveness of your job search strategies.
Job advert monitoring tool so you don’t have to constantly check if they're still available.
Easy import from spreadsheets as a lot of you are already using them. With the easy-to-use import tool, migration to Laburo is a no-brainer.

And much more coming in the near future as the community grows and I collect more and more feedback from our users. You could be the next influencing the next big feature! 😉

By using Laburo, you can significantly enhance your efficiency and effectiveness in tracking and managing job applications. It provides comprehensive features tailored to streamline every aspect of your job search process.

If you’re looking to improve how you manage your job applications, I encourage you to give Laburo a try! It’s completely free, just sign up and check for yourself if it works for you as well as it worked for me and other fellow job seekers.

Conclusion:

Effectively tracking your job applications is essential for staying organised and increasing your chances of landing a job. Depending on your personal preferences, technical skills, and the volume of applications you are managing, one or a combination of these strategies can be tailored to meet your needs. Choose the method that aligns best with your style and get started on mastering your job hunt today!

By employing the right strategy, you can streamline your job search process and focus more on crafting strong applications and preparing for interviews. Stay vigilant, stay organised, and let your job search journey be as efficient as possible!