Build a job application tracker in Google Sheets or Excel
A ready-to-build tracker for applications, contacts, and follow-ups, with status rules, reminders, and a weekly review routine.
The prompt
Help me build a spreadsheet to track my job or internship applications.
Tool: [Google Sheets / Excel]
What I'm applying for: [roles, fields, locations - e.g. "entry-level data analyst roles, remote or Chicago"]
Volume: [about how many applications per week]
Things I want to track beyond the basics: [e.g. referrals, salary range, visa sponsorship, security clearance needed, required skills]
Design the tracker with:
1. Applications tab: columns for company, role, link to posting, location, date found, date applied, source (job board, referral, career fair), status, next action, next action date, contact, salary range, and notes. Add my extra fields. For each column, say the data type and use a dropdown where it helps.
2. Status values in order: e.g. Saved, Applied, Screen, Interviewing, Offer, Rejected, Withdrawn, No response. Define when to move to No response.
3. Contacts tab for networking: name, company, how we met, last contact date, next follow-up, and notes, linked to applications.
4. Conditional formatting rules written out exactly: highlight overdue follow-ups, interviews in the next 7 days, and stale applications with no update after 14 days.
5. Summary tab with formulas: applications per week, response rate, interview rate by source, and count by status. Give the actual formulas for my tool.
6. A 15-minute weekly review routine that uses the tracker.
Keep it simple enough to update in under a minute per application.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Career & Job Search prompts
What to fill in
- Google Sheets / Excel
- about how many applications per week
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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