What the tracker records
Every posting you check becomes an entry. What gets recorded is what you actually need later: when following up, in the interview and for the proof.
Company, role, location and link
Employer, job title, place of work and the address of the posting. If the role comes from the job board, these are already filled in; if you pasted the text, you complete them once and never search for them again.
The application date
The moment an entry first moves to "applied", the tracker records the day. It is set exactly once and never overwritten, even if you move the status on later. That date is what carries the proof afterwards.
Nine states instead of "still open"
Evaluated, applied, replied, interview, offer, rejected, discarded, skipped, done. You pick the status on the entry itself; the board sorts it into the matching column, the list view shows everything below one another.
Fit as a grade
Entries from the job check bring a rating from 1 to 5 with them. You can sort and filter by it instead of working through whatever happens to sit at the top.
Notes on the application
A free text field per entry: the name of your contact, what was said on the phone, which salary came up. Everything nobody can reconstruct three weeks later.
Interview appointments
Date and time, the format (on site, video or phone), location or dial-in link and a note. You download the appointment as a calendar file and put it in your own calendar.
Every follow-up
When you followed up, through which channel (email, LinkedIn, phone or portal) and what came of it. So the same question is not open again next time.
The matching documents
The resume, cover letter and cover page you tailored for this role stay attached to the entry. You find them again without clicking through a folder full of files called "final".
- Company, role, location and link
- The application date
- Nine states instead of "still open"
- Fit as a grade
- Notes on the application
- Interview appointments
- Every follow-up
- The matching documents
Four numbers above everything
A narrow bar sits above the columns: how many applications are running, how many interviews are due today, how many follow-ups are pending and how your ratings average out. It is the view you scroll down for every single time in a spreadsheet.
A reminder to follow up
Between hitting send and the first reply there is usually nothing: no date, no task, no nudge. So the tracker works out for each entry when following up would be due, and marks it once the time has come.
After you send it
The first reminder comes seven days after the application date, the next one a week later. After the second follow-up the thread counts as cold, and the entry stops reminding you.
When the company replies
A reply is urgent the same day. If it sits for more than three days, the tracker marks the entry as overdue.
After the interview
The day after the interview the tracker reminds you of the short thank-you note.
Nothing goes out without you
No message is sent automatically, and certainly none from someone else as sender. You write from your own mailbox, because that is what reaches the employer. The tracker only records that and how you did it.
- After you send it
- When the company replies
- After the interview
These are guide values, not rules. They exist to nudge you, not to drive you. The entry gets marked, nothing more happens.
As proof for the Agentur fuer Arbeit
Anyone receiving Arbeitslosengeld, the German unemployment benefit, has to document their own job-search efforts. The official term is "Nachweis von Eigenbemuehungen"; in everyday speech everyone says Bewerbungsnachweis. It always means the same thing: a list of when you applied where, for what, and what came of it.
How many applications are required
There is no universal number. What binds you is what your personal agreement says: the Eingliederungsvereinbarung if you receive Arbeitslosengeld, or the Kooperationsplan if you receive Buergergeld. That document also states which activities count and when you have to present them. It is the yardstick, not a number from a forum.
This page describes a tool and is not legal advice. What applies to you is in your agreement; when in doubt, ask your caseworker at the agency.
What the proof contains
The export is a table with five columns, above it a header with your name, your address, the chosen period and the creation date.
The states from the board are translated into neutral wording for this: "applied" becomes "application sent", "replied" becomes "response received", "interview" becomes "job interview". The sheet then reads like a document for the file and not like a screenshot from an app.
Choose a period
Last month, last three months or your own from-to. Usually that matches the gap between two appointments at the agency.
Check the count
The tracker shows immediately how many applications fall into that period. If the number does not match what was agreed, you see it beforehand and not during the appointment.
Complete the header
Name and address come from your profile. If the address is missing, the export points that out before you hand it in.
Export as PDF
One sheet to print, take along or attach. Only entries with an application date are listed: what you checked but never sent does not appear.
What the export is and what it is not
The export is your own list, not the official form. It puts the details into exactly the shape that matters: when, where, for what, with what result. Whether your caseworker additionally wants a particular form filled in is something you settle there. The advantage stays the same either way: you have nothing to reconstruct at the end, because it all came into being while you were applying.
- DateThe day the application went out.
- CompanyThe employer from the entry.
- RoleThe title from the posting.
- TypeHow you applied. Entries in the tracker come from online postings and are therefore listed as "online".
- Status and outcomeWhat became of the application.
- Choose a period
- Check the count
- Complete the header
- Export as PDF
For exactly this list there is remarkably little tooling. Search for it and you find guide articles and spreadsheet templates you maintain a second time by hand: once while applying, once the evening before the appointment. In the tracker the proof falls out along the way, because the application date is set anyway the moment you move an entry to "applied".
Which activities count, how often you have to present them and what happens if the proof is missing: Documenting Eigenbemuehungen for the employment agency.