What's the best way to organize a job search?
The best way to organize a job search is with a dedicated job search CRM that keeps your applications, contacts, follow-ups, and interview notes connected in one place. Spreadsheets and Notion templates work for a small handful of applications, but they fall apart once you cross 30 jobs.
JobSearchHQ was built for this. It tracks every application, reminds you when to follow up, stores every recruiter you've talked to, logs your interview notes, and uses AI to write your cover letters and follow-up emails. Everything stays on your computer.
Can I try JobSearchHQ before paying?
Yes. JobSearchHQ is free for up to 15 jobs, with no signup, no credit card, and no email required. Just open the app and start. Once you cross 15 jobs, it's a one-time $29 purchase to unlock unlimited tracking. No subscription, no monthly bill.
What's better than a spreadsheet for tracking job applications?
Spreadsheets work fine for the first 25 or 30 applications. After that, finding records, updating statuses, remembering follow-ups, and linking contacts to jobs all get painful. One wrong delete and weeks of work disappear.
JobSearchHQ replaces the spreadsheet with a real job search CRM. Follow-up reminders are built in. Contacts link to jobs automatically. Interview notes stay with the right company. Analytics show what's actually working. And your data still lives in a single file on your computer, so you keep the ownership a spreadsheet gives you.
How do I keep track of jobs I've applied to?
The fastest way is to save each job to a tracker with the company, role, salary, source, application date, and status. JobSearchHQ makes this nearly automatic: copy a job posting from LinkedIn, Indeed, or any company site, paste it into the app, and most of the fields fill themselves in. Click save and the job is in your pipeline.
From there, the My Jobs HQ view shows every application color-coded by status (applied, interview, offer, rejected, and so on), so you can see your full pipeline at a glance.
How do I manage follow-ups and activities?
Missed follow-ups are one of the biggest reasons promising leads go cold. The fix is a system that surfaces what's due automatically.
JobSearchHQ's Schedule shows every pending follow-up, interview, and task by date and urgency, linked to the right job and the right contact. You'll see exactly what needs your attention today, this week, and what's coming up. When you complete a follow-up, it logs the date so you always know when you last reached out.
What's the easiest way to write cover letters and follow-up emails?
Generic cover letters get ignored. The trick is writing one that's specific to the job, the company, and your background, fast.
JobSearchHQ includes The Playbook, a library of over 200 AI prompts for cover letters, follow-up emails, thank-you notes, interview prep, salary negotiation, and networking outreach. Each prompt uses your real resume and the actual job description, so the output is personalized, not generic. You bring your own AI key (Gemini's free tier covers most users), so usage is effectively unlimited.
How do I tailor my resume to a job posting?
Around 98% of Fortune 500 companies use ATS filters, and roughly 40% of applications get screened out before a human ever sees them. Beating the filter usually comes down to matching the right keywords.
JobSearchHQ includes a Resume Fit Score that scans the job posting against your resume and tells you which keywords match, which are missing, and where your alignment is weak. Fix the gaps before you submit and you give yourself a real shot at the human review stage.
How do I keep track of recruiters and hiring managers I've talked to?
Forgetting what a recruiter said or which company a contact is connected to costs you opportunities. A real CRM solves this.
JobSearchHQ's My Network stores every recruiter, hiring manager, and connection. Each contact links to the jobs and interviews they're tied to, so when you click a contact's name you see every conversation, every job, and every interview note in one view. Walk into your next call knowing exactly where you left off.
How do I know which job boards are working for me?
Most job seekers waste hours on boards that aren't producing interviews. The only way to know is to measure.
JobSearchHQ's Analytics dashboard shows your application-to-interview conversion rate by source, your overall ghosting rate (how many applications get no response), where you're getting stuck in the funnel, and which actions correlate with interviews. Stop applying blind. Focus your time on the channels that are actually working.
Is it safe to use a job tracker app with my personal data?
Most job trackers store your data on their servers, which means your search history lives in someone else's database. If you're job searching while employed, that's a real concern.
JobSearchHQ is different. Your data lives in a single file on your own computer. There's no cloud account, no server, no employer or recruiter database that can see who you've applied to. JobSearchHQ itself never sees your data.
What devices do I need to use a job search tracker?
JobSearchHQ is a desktop app that runs in your browser on Chrome or Edge, on Windows, Mac, or Linux. No download, no install, no admin permissions needed.
If you also use a cloud sync app like Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive on your computer, you can save your JobSearchHQ data file inside that folder. It'll automatically sync to the cloud and back up across any other machine where you've signed in.
Where is my data saved?
Your JobSearchHQ data is saved to a single file on your own computer, wherever you choose to put it. JobSearchHQ has no servers, no account system, and no cloud database. Nobody sees your data except you.
To back it up, save the file inside a folder synced by Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or any cloud storage app you already use. The file syncs to the cloud automatically and is available on any other machine where you've signed in. You can also copy it to an external drive or USB stick.