Keeping your own record, since this product keeps none
Conxfolio does not track applications, send mail or set reminders. Here is what it does keep, and what to keep yourself.
— no account means no tracker, and that is the trade.
People ask for a tracker, and the honest answer is that there is not one and it is not planned. The reason is structural rather than a matter of effort, and it is worth explaining before the workaround.
Why there is no tracker
A tracker needs to know who you are across devices and over time, which means an account and a database of your applications on our side. This product is built the other way round: your work is kept in your browser and there is no account at all, which is set out in why there is no account. A tracker would require undoing that.
What the product does keep
Three things, all locally. The documents you are working on. Saved versions, so you can restore an earlier draft, described in versions and restoring a draft. And previous ATS reports, so a re-check after a fix can be compared with the one before it, which is the subject of previous reports and what a fix was worth.
The four columns worth keeping yourself
| Column | Why |
|---|---|
| Role and employer | So a reply six weeks later means something |
| Date sent, and closing date | So following up has a sensible moment |
| Which documents went | So you can open the exact file they read |
| Outcome, and the reason if given | The only real data you will collect all year |
The column that pays for the habit
The last one. Twenty rows of outcomes tell you whether the problem is the document, the roles you are choosing, or the volume. That is a better diagnosis than any tool can give you, because it comes from the market you are actually in. A week of applications is about the rhythm that produces those rows.
A fifth column, if you write letters
The gaps the letter builder listed for that posting. Those are the requirements your evidence could not support, named, and they are also the questions most likely to come up if you are called. Keeping them beside the application turns a tracker into preparation, which is the argument in reading your own gaps list.
Keeping the documents findable
Export the file you sent, and name it so you can find it. Our exports take their name from the document, which is described in emailing a résumé; adding the company when you file it costs a second. If you keep more than one version on the go, keeping two résumés at once covers the mechanics.
Where to keep it, since it is not here
A spreadsheet, a notebook, a note on a phone. The medium is irrelevant and the columns are not, and anything that makes you dread opening it will stop being updated in the second week. Two practical details make the difference. Add the row when you send, rather than at the end of the week, because the details you want are the ones you have in front of you at that moment. And keep a copy of the exact file you attached beside the row, because a call about a role you applied to three weeks ago is much easier with the document open.
What this page does not claim
That tracking improves your chances. It does not, in itself. What it does is stop you re-applying to the same employer, let you answer a call about a role you sent three weeks ago, and give you something real to look at when the search is going badly. Those are modest benefits, honestly described, and no page here will tell you a spreadsheet is a strategy.
One note for anybody who has seen a job-search product that does track applications. Those exist and some of them are good, and the trade they make is the one described above: an account, a server copy of your material, and a company that knows where you have applied. That is a reasonable exchange if you want the feature, and it is not the exchange this product makes. Knowing which side of that line a tool sits on is worth more than the feature list, and what happens to your uploaded résumé is where this one's side is written down.
One last argument for keeping the record even when it feels pointless. A job search is long enough that memory stops being reliable at about the twentieth application, and the failure is specific: you stop being able to tell whether a pattern is real or just the last bad week. Twenty rows with outcomes on them settle that in a minute. It is the only dataset in a job search that belongs entirely to you, and it costs a line a day.
Check the document each application starts from
Reports are kept in this browser, so you can run the check again after a fix and see what it was worth.
Open the ATS checkerA week of applicationsQuestions
- Is there an application tracker
- No. Conxfolio holds documents rather than applications, and there is no account to attach a tracker to.
- Why not build one
- Because it needs the account and the database the product deliberately does not have. Adding it would change what the whole product is.
- What does the product keep
- Your work in this browser, your saved versions, and your previous ATS reports, so a re-check after a fix can be compared with the one before.
- Does it send or track email
- No. Nothing here sends mail on your behalf and nothing knows whether a message was opened.
- What should I track myself
- Four columns: the role and employer, the date, the documents you sent, and the outcome. A spreadsheet or a notebook does the job.
Conxfolio is a free set of four career tools: a résumé builder with 37 rendered layouts, an ATS résumé checker that prints its own arithmetic, a cover letter builder that traces every proof paragraph back to the line it came from, and a portfolio builder with 20 authored designs. There is no account to create, nothing is held back for a paid plan, and no language model is used anywhere in the product, so the readers, the score and the letter are deterministic code you can check.