Free Job Application Tracker Template (Google Sheets and Excel)

If you want to track your job applications in a spreadsheet, you don't need a 20-column monster. You need a handful of columns that answer three questions: where did I apply, what's the status, and what happens next.

Here's a template that does exactly that.

Download the template

Download the tracker template (CSV), then import it:

• Google Sheets: File → Import → Upload, and pick "Replace spreadsheet".
• Excel: just open the file, then save as .xlsx.

It comes with two example rows so you can see how it's meant to be filled in. Delete them and add your own.

What each column is for

• Company / Job Title: the basics. One row per application.
• Status: use a fixed set of values and nothing else: Found, Submitted, In Progress, Got Offer, Rejected. The moment you allow "waiting??" or "they said maybe", the column stops being sortable and starts being a diary.
• Date Added / Last Updated: the second one matters most. If "Last Updated" is three weeks old on a Submitted row, that's your signal to follow up or let it go.
• Employment Type: full-time, B2B, contract; whatever distinction matters in your market.
• Min / Max Salary: the posted or discussed range. Two number columns, so you can sort by them; don't write "competitive" in a number column.
• Location: city plus work mode, like "Warsaw (hybrid)" or "remote". When offers start coming in, this column matters sooner than you'd expect.
• Job Posting Link: postings get taken down, but at least keep the link while it lives.
• Contact Person / Next Step: who you're talking to and the one concrete thing that happens next.
• Notes: everything else, one line per event, newest first.

A few habits that keep the sheet alive: update it the moment something happens (not "later"), add a data-validation dropdown on the Status column so typos can't creep in, and turn on conditional formatting so Got Offer rows turn green. Small dopamine, real effect.

Where the spreadsheet stops working

We'll be honest, since we build a job tracker ourselves: this template is genuinely enough for a small, slow search. But there are three walls you'll eventually hit.

Nothing enforces the process. The spreadsheet doesn't care if you stop updating it. There's no pipeline view, no "this has been stuck for two weeks" signal, nothing that surfaces what needs attention. Discipline is all on you, every day.

Mobile is painful. A recruiter calls while you're out; scrolling a 13-column sheet on a phone to find what stage you're at with their company is not a good moment.

You can't paste a screenshot. This one is underrated. Job postings disappear, and copying their text into a cell mangles the formatting and loses half the details. A screenshot of the posting captures everything: requirements, salary range, benefits, exactly as advertised. Cells can't hold images in any usable way.

If you outgrow it

When the search gets serious, a purpose-built tracker takes over where the sheet gives up: OfferKeep has the same five-things-only philosophy as this template (status pipeline, salary range, notes, dates), works in your browser without an account, and lets you paste screenshots of each posting straight from your clipboard onto the offer. If you later create a free account, you can export back to CSV anytime, so there's no lock-in in either direction.

For choosing between the tools in this space, we wrote an honest comparison of free job trackers. And whichever you pick, spreadsheet or app: the tracker you update daily beats the perfect one you abandoned. Start with the template; upgrade when it starts to hurt.