and I call it JAM | Job Application Management

I have been open to a new position for some time. During the process, I had many interviews and had the chance to meet very nice people and encounter quite interesting opportunities.

However, landing the right job is not always easy. Sometimes it does not work out at all, sometimes you cannot fit culturally, or perhaps the seniority, expectations, or location of the company do not align. One way or another, I bet you would all agree that job hunting is a tedious process.

Once I started applying to multiple positions and talking to various hiring managers and recruiters, I realized that I needed to organize myself better to be more efficient. This led me to save the data for each application using Google Sheets.

As a data-driven person, I had to know exactly what was going on in my job hunt process. For example, I needed to "remember" when I applied to a position, and how long it took for them to reply to me. When I had an interview with them, what were the details of that meeting? What did I do right, what was missing, which topics were important for them, why didn't I think it was a good match, and so on.

Well, I like being organized. That means, after a while, I ended up building a workbook for myself where I stored my applications and the entire process. Since I enjoy creating spreadsheets with complicated and fancy formulas, it started to turn into a little template for job applications.

The next step? I needed some scripts to achieve what I wanted. For example, creating a new sheet for interviews to log more data - I could not do that manually.

At first, I wrote a Google Script which I used to enter information into the necessary fields through an input sheet, which I used as a data entry form. It worked as expected, but I needed more - a real data entry form, for example…

<aside> 💡 Here comes my coding coach, my recent best buddy, ChatGPT.

</aside>

Well, learning by doing is the best, right?

Step by step, I was coding what I wanted to achieve. By getting help from ChatGPT and with some trial and error, I ended up with a very useful Google Sheets template for myself. And I call it JAM | Job Application Management.

The template creates a new menu item called JAM, which you can use to control your job applications. A sidebar menu pops up as a data entry form.

With this template, I can:

• Add a new job that I might apply to by entering information via an input form, supplying information such as the title, company, location, salary, etc.
• Update the status as I might apply or decide to skip for any reason
• Create a new sheet if I am invited for an interview, storing all necessary information such as interview time, names of the people who will interview me, my notes, meeting outcomes, comments, etc.
• Have my personal KPIs since I know how many jobs I am interested in, applied to, actually interviewed for, etc.

Today, I decided to share this template with whoever wants to use it for their own needs. It is not a complete product, but I believe it's a good one to fulfill the requirements. Please feel free to copy and use it with your Google account. You can also develop it further according to your own needs.