1. Pick one place for everything
Saved jobs scattered across LinkedIn, Indeed, email alerts and bookmarks are how applications get duplicated or forgotten. Choose one home for the whole search: a spreadsheet, a database tool, or a job-search app with a built-in tracker. The best one is the one you'll actually update the same day you apply.
2. Record the same fields for every job
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Company and job title | The pair you search on to catch duplicates. |
| Link to the original posting | Postings move or disappear; also save the description text. |
| Source | LinkedIn, Indeed, company site, referral… so you can see which channel works. |
| Status | Saved, Applied, Interview, Offer, Rejected, Withdrawn. |
| Date applied | Needed for follow-ups and for spotting stale applications. |
| Resume version | Which version you sent, so you can compare results. |
| Contact | Recruiter or referral name and channel. |
| Next action and date | The single field that prevents missed follow-ups. |
3. Avoid duplicate applications
- Before adding a job, search the tracker for the company name, then compare titles.
- Treat the same role on two boards as one job; record both sources in the notes.
- Prefer the employer's own career page when the same role is on several sites.
- Mark applications as applied the moment you submit, not at the end of the day.
- Daily (10–15 minutes). Process new alerts, add promising roles to the tracker, dismiss the rest.
- Twice a week. Send follow-ups that are due and contact recruiters for your top applications.
- Weekly. Review results by source and resume version, archive stale applications and plan next week's targets.
4. Measure what's working
Track applications sent, responses and interviews per source. Compare rates rather than raw counts (for example interviews per 10 applications), and give recent applications time before counting them as unanswered.
Doing it with BeeHired
BeeHired aggregates listings from several sources (including Arbeidsplassen/NAV, Adzuna, The Muse, USAJOBS and company career pages) into one daily feed, and its Jobs page works as a tracker: bookmark, mark as applied or dismiss, each with its own tab. For jobs you find elsewhere, Apply to Any Job analyzes the posting against your resume.