The board
Remembering which version you sent, and when
What goes wrong when a job search lives in a spreadsheet and your inbox, and how Jobtiv's application tracker keeps the posting, the status, and the version together.
A spreadsheet does not remember the file you attached
Forty rows with a company name and a date feel like control. They are not. The failure shows up in week six: you cannot remember whether Tesco got the operations-heavy resume or the people-heavy one, whether you already wrote to the area manager, and whether "interview" in the sheet means a phone screen you missed or a store walk you have not booked.
The inbox is worse as a system of record. Offers, rejections, and "we will keep your CV" sit in the same list as a delivery notification. Status lives in your head, which is how you send a follow-up to a role that already closed.
One card per application: posting, status, the version you used
The tracker is a board of applications you add yourself. Each card can hold the employer, the role, a status, and a pointer to the resume version you actually exported. It will not scrape Indeed for you. It will not click Submit.
The point is recall. When a recruiter emails on a Thursday, you can see which file they have, which letter went with it, and what you last said. That is a memory aid, not a pipeline metric.
What Luca Benedetti-Shaw is tracking
This is a fictional example CV, written to show the template. It is not a real person.
Luca Benedetti-Shaw is a fictional store manager in Glasgow. He is not applying to one job. He is applying to area and store roles that look similar in a spreadsheet and are not: one wants shrink and Saturday trade, another wants people development.
The tracker is how those two stay separate cards, each with the version he sent, instead of one row that says "retail — applied". The fictional CV already has the store facts. The board's job is not to rewrite them.
When the tracker will not help
It will not apply on your behalf, scrape listings, or email employers. An empty board is an empty board. If you never attach which version you sent, you have rebuilt the spreadsheet. It also will not tell you why a role went quiet.
Questions
- Does the tracker apply to jobs for me?
- No. You still apply through the employer's process. The tracker records what you did.
- Can it import my spreadsheet?
- You add applications in the tool. A spreadsheet remains a spreadsheet until you do.
- Is this a CRM?
- It is a board for your own applications. It is not a sales CRM and it does not contact anyone.