How to Organize a Job Search (So Applications Stop Disappearing)

A serious job search generates more state than a person can hold in their head: 40–80 open applications, each at a different stage, each with its own contacts, deadlines, and follow-up clock. The people who seem "lucky" in their search are usually just the ones who didn't drop threads.

Track these fields, ignore the rest

• Company, role, link, date applied — the identity of the thread.
• Status — Applied / Screening / Interviewing / Offer / Rejected / Ghosted. One word, updated the moment it changes.
• Next action + date — the single most important column. Every live application should have one. "Waiting" is not an action; "follow up on the 12th" is.
• Contact — recruiter or referrer name and where you talked (email, LinkedIn).
• Salary range — capture it when posted; you'll want it at offer time.

The two rules that produce replies

Follow up at 7 days, once. A short, specific nudge a week after applying measurably revives stalled applications, and one nudge is the polite maximum before an interview exists. This only happens reliably if something tells you it's day 7 — which is the whole argument for a tracker with conditional formatting over a notes app.

Treat interviews as their own pipeline. Each round gets its own row: who you're meeting, what they care about, your prep notes, and whether the thank-you note went out. Walking into round 3 with your round 1 notes in front of you is an unreasonable advantage.

Compare offers on total compensation

Base salary is one line of five. Bonus, equity, benefits value, and time off move real compensation by 20–40%. When offers arrive, put them side by side and compute the total — never negotiate from memory.