Job Search Tracking Spreadsheet

Published On: April 1st, 2022Last Updated: February 2nd, 2024Categories: Job Seekers Blog, Tips & AdviceTags: ,
Job Search Tracking Spreadsheet - Job Seekers Blog - JobStars

The following post provides an overview with tips for creating a Job Search Tracking Spreadsheet.

Tracking your job search activity is the key to running an orderly job search campaign. This means recording your job search activity including jobs applied to, interviews attended, and job offers received.

Read: Understanding Your Resume’s Audience

Related: Companies Headquartered in My City

Building a list of target employers requires identifying companies based on size, industry, location, culture, and more. Rather than passively responding to job ads – you’re proactively seeking out companies.

Here’s everything you need to know about building your own spreadsheet.

Tracking Your Activity

  • Tracking your job search activity forces accountability. When you commit to applying to five new jobs per week, tracking activity keeps things honest.
  • Applying to jobs without properly tracking your activity puts you in a position to be caught off guard during initial phone screenings.
  • Following-up is a key aspect of the job search process; tracking your activity makes that easier.

Building a Target Employer List

  • Think about the type of employer you’d like to work for and start building a list of companies that meet your criteria. This includes factors like company size, industry, corporate culture, and more.
  • Most employers list ALL job openings on their company website. They only advertise some jobs on external sites like Indeed. This is why skipping large job boards and going directly to employer websites is the best way to see all active job listings with a given employer.
  • Conducting up-front research on a potential employer is critical. Prior to filling out a job application, you should do company research to ensure it checks enough of the boxes that you care about.

Researching Employers

  • Visiting a company’s website directly is one of the best ways to learn about an employer, including their mission statement, values, corporate social responsibility, and workplace culture.
  • Sites like Glassdoor are useful for researching employers. Here’s our full List of Employer Research Sites.
  • This may seem obvious, but when you’re spending countless hours researching employers, it’s critical to make sure your computer is operating efficiently. If your Mac or PC is running, slow it’s pretty hard to do effective research. I recommend using these steps to clean your Mac.

Finding Careers Sites

Once you’ve identified companies you want to work for, simply search: {company name} + careers on Google to find the careers site for virtually any employer. This is the simplest way to find their full listing of jobs.

Job Search Talk - Employer List Picture

In Conclusion

Think about the type of employer you’d like to work for and build a list of companies that meet your criteria. Most employers list all publicly vacant jobs on their careers page. Whereas, only some are posted on an external job site like Indeed. You’re better off skipping these middlemen and going straight to the source.

The following spreadsheet is a free downloadable MS Excel file for tracking your job search activity as well as building a list of target employers.

Download the Job Search Tracker (MS Excel)

About the Author: Doug Levin

Doug Levin is the owner and operator of JobStars USA, a career services practice serving job seekers of all industries and experience levels. He is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW), and Career Coach (CPCC) with a decade of experience in the Resume Writing niche.

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