Keeping track of the jobs you have applied for

You have done your resume, fine tuned your cover letter and sent off your resume.  Much to your chagrin you didn't get the first job you applied to.  So now the whole process starts over and over, and over again. Yes, there is a good chance that you might send out over 200 resumes before you actually land your dream job.

Printing off all your resumes and cover letters is using up a lot of paper, not to mention file folders to put them in.  This is when a Job Log comes in handy.  My preference would be to do it in excel or even better a google docs spreadsheet.  The columns are easy to set up, you can sort the file by date, by company, by position, etc.  And spreadhseets are relatively user friendly.  Putting it up on google docs means you can access it wherever your are - the library, the coffee shop, etc.  It also gives you the ability to update the information right after your interview while it is still fresh in your mind.

What goes in the Job Log:

• Date you sent resume
• Company Name
• Contact Info:  Name, email, phone
• Job Number
• Job Title
• Copy of Job Posting: Note - don't just link the url, the url may be taken down before you get an interview, so keep a hard copy of the job posting.
• Resume/Cover Letter
• Follow up dates and whether an email or phone call
• Telephone Interview
• 1st Interview
• Date
• Who with
• Preparation Notes:  possible questions, company info
• Questions to follow up on
• Follow up dates and whether an email or phone call
• Thank you letter sent
• 2nd Interview
• Date
• Who with
• Preparation Notes:  possible questions, company info
• Questions to follow up on
• Follow up dates and whether an email or phone call
• Thank you letter sent
• Salary and benefits

The first thing to do is figure out your computer filing system and naming conventions for your resume/cover letter, thank you letters, copy of job posting, company information and interview questions you want to ask (which you will update after the interview with the answers).  These documents can be either linked to your spreadsheet or just put the file name in.

One small recommendation - I like to put my cover letter in the front of my resume.  HR and Recruiters have a tendency to go right to the resume and never open the cover letter.  If it is at the front of your resume then they may actually glance at it.  

Looking for a job can be a full time job.  So remember as with all data collection it is only helpful if it is kept up to date and a little work to set it up will save you a ton of time and possible embarassment when you start getting interviews.

Good luck Job Hunting