Thirty applications in, the hard part of a job search stops being the applying. It is remembering who you owe a follow-up, which posting has gone quiet, and whether the board you check every morning has ever produced a single reply. The Job Search Tool is a job application tracker for Excel and Google Sheets that does that remembering for you: it dates every next step, flags what is overdue, and puts it all on one list you can work through each morning.
A job application tracker that tells you what to do next
Log an application once — company, role, source, the resume version you sent, the posted salary range and a status — and the Applications tab takes it from there. Each of the 9 statuses carries its own follow-up gap (set on Start Here), so every row computes its next follow-up date, the days since you last touched it, and a flag: Overdue, Due this week, Ghosted or Closed. An application that never gets touched still comes due, which is the point — the rows that slip are the ones you stop opening.
The Today tab gathers everything that needs you onto one tab, with follow-ups ranked: overdue first, then this week’s, then applications that have gone quiet past your ghost threshold, with the next step written out for each. Below it sit the interviews to prep for, thank-you notes owed, contacts due a touch and job boards you have not checked on schedule.
See which job boards and resumes actually get replies
A plain application log stops at a list of companies. This one runs the funnel. Job Boards counts, for every board and channel, the applications sent, replies, reply rate, interviews, interview rate, offers and the median days to a reply — flags which boards are due a check, and records whether your resume is posted and an alert is set on each. Resume Versions runs the same funnel for each version of your resume and marks the one with the best reply rate. The Dashboard pulls it together: a 5-stage funnel with step conversion, this week against your own targets, the best source, the best resume and your next interview.
Interviews, contacts and a weekly record
The Interviews tab tracks every round with prep and thank-you columns and a computed To do — Prep now, Today, Send thank-you, Thank-you overdue, Upcoming, Done or Closed — and names your next interview at the top. Contacts gives every recruiter, referral and hiring manager a next-touch-due date. The Weekly Log covers 26 weeks of applications and networking touches against the targets you set, marked hit or missed — a record you keep for yourself (requirements for any official work-search log vary by state, and this is not one).
Compare offers with the numbers you already logged
When offers arrive, the Offers tab compares up to 6 side by side. It pulls the salary range you logged at application, totals base, bonus, retirement match and benefits, less your health premium and commute, into a total annual comp, and shows where each base lands against your range and your target. Then it scores 10 factors you weight yourself and says which offer fits best — and what choosing it over the best-paid one costs per year. For equity and multi-year offer math, the Job-Offer Decision Helper goes deeper.
What’s in the download
- The 11-tab workbook, opening on a clearly fictional worked example whose dates move with today’s date, so it never looks stale
- The .xlsx opens in Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, and a one-click link also makes a native Google Sheets copy (no import needed)
- An 11-page Start Here guide, a 13-page Job Search Playbook on follow-up cadence, reading your funnel, STAR interview prep and comparing offers, and a 5-page Printables PDF
Want to try the log before you buy? The free Job Search Tracker Starter is the application log on its own — a spreadsheet pre-filled with a dozen example rows, a days-since-applied column and counts by status and by job board, no sign-up. The full workbook is what adds the follow-up dates, the Today list, the reply-rate funnel and the offer comparison.
Own it, don’t rent it
Many paid job-search apps charge a recurring subscription that keeps billing until you cancel it. This is a file you buy once and keep — unlocked, editable, no account and nothing to cancel, with your applications and contacts staying in your own spreadsheet.
