I used a spreadsheet in my job search. It simply wasn’t enough. That’s one big reason I started JibberJobber, which is the best alternative to a job search spreadsheet you’ll find.
I’ve seen job search spreadsheets in the last nine years, some are very colorful, some are cool with filters… you can download some for free, or pay someone a few bucks for the one they made.
But the job search spreadsheet didn’t solve some important issues I had, as a job search:
- The job search spreadsheet doesn’t ping me when I need to follow-up with someone. A web-based system, like JibberJobber, should.
- The job search spreadsheet requires a lot of data entry. When I talked to a recruiter about a job at a company, I had to leave notes about our call on the recruiter, job and company records. That was a lot of duplicate data entry. JibberJobber allows you to create one Log Entry, and associate it with multiple records.
- The job search spreadsheet does not interface with my email. Job seekers find it easier to send an email than pick up the phone. If I’m sending emails, I don’t want to have to turn around and copy and paste to my spreadsheet. You can guess that JibberJobber does this nicely.
- The job search spreadsheet doesn’t make it easy for multiple (lots of) follow-up. Most spreadsheets have a first contact date, and a follow-up date… but what if you communicate with someone 3 times? Or, 30 times? That’s why we have Log Entries in JibberJobber… to have umpteen+ relevant records of communication. Sure you could do this in Excel, but who wants 30 extra columns of data?
- The job search spreadsheet is a band-aid. When I was using mine, and tweaking it, I realized that it was getting messy, and if I had to come back to it in two to five years, I wasn’t sure if I would understand any of it. I wanted something that would provide value to me years later… which is what JibberJobber can do. I’ve had many users who come back for a second, third, or fourth job search, and pick up right where they left off. But with cooler features, since we are continually enhancing it 🙂
Is there an ultimate job search spreadsheet? If you are looking for a band-aid with limited functionality and not much room for growth, about anything will do. It will work great for the first week or two, but as you network more, and apply to more companies, you’ll probably get more frustrated.
Why not forgo the frustration? Just sign up on JibberJobber. The free side allows you to pretty much everything. The premium side, which is $9.95 a month (or get 50% off if you buy a year for $60) is pretty amazing (here’s what you get on the premium side – yes, everything else is really on the free side).
Then, if you really want spreadsheets, just export your data in a multitude of ways to a spreadsheet :p