Let's Talk About Huntr.co - A Tutorial on Tracking the Jobs You Apply For

When job searching, we all go through the same steps: applying for jobs, getting rejected and applying again. Sometimes there's not even a formal rejection and over time, it can all get pretty disheartening.

You find yourself asking - "Am I doing enough?", "Am I just not cut out for this?", "When should I give up?", "Am I making any progress?

Huntr.co my friends is the answer!

Huntr is a free tool designed to help you track your progress, organize important dates, interviews and even contact information for your entire job search.

Creating Lists of Jobs to Apply to

I recommend Huntr a lot in my post Baby Steps: Your Job Search Plan of Action as a great tool for planning out your personal job search assignments and for creating a list of jobs to apply to each week.

In Finding Jobs to Apply For Online we talk about best practices for search terms, job search sites and even signing up for notifications when new jobs matching your preferences appear. After doing this, I recommend taking time at least once a week to go through that list of emailed jobs and adding them to your Huntr list using the Huntr Chrome Extension. Then you have a whole list of jobs to just go down the line of applying to, instead of spending hours searching and applying all at once.

The Huntr Chrome Extension can be downloaded for free here and is pretty easy to use. After downloading the extension simply click on it to connect to your account. Once you're connected, you can start adding jobs to your Huntr list.

Adding a Job

Adding a job with the Huntr Chrome Extension is pretty simple. Once you've found a position you're interested in, click on the Chrome Extension in the bottom right corner and the extension will auto-populate with the information from the job posting. After clicking "Save" the job will be added to your Huntr list under the column, "Wishlist".

Updating a Job Post to Application Status

As mentioned before, you can add job postings to Huntr for applying to later. Each of those postings can be accessed via "Wishlist" column where you can click on a post, follow the link to the job posting and submit your application.

After applying for a job, I recommend returning to Huntr to update that posting's status to "Applied" by simply clicking on the job posting and dragging it to the "Applied" column. When it comes time for a Phone Call or Interview you can change the status accordingly. Updating a job's status additionally updates your personal analytics (a paid tool) in terms of response rates and more.

Interview Details and Contacts

When you update a job to the "Interview" status, I recommend clicking on it to open a window for adding more details like the date of your interview, location and even the contact info for the person you'll be meeting with.

Organize Your Job Search with Tasks

Beyond saving jobs, tracking interviews and contact information, Huntr is also an excellent tool for setting goals by creating general simple tasks to complete for the week. In Baby Steps: Your Job Search Plan of Action we talk about setting aside time in the morning to follow up on job applications, let's say 9 am.

With Huntr's Tasks feature we can create a task for that by typing "Follow up...". You can find the Tasks menu by clicking on the "bullet list" icon above your Huntr lists. Simply fill in the "Add Task" bar with the task you'd like to record, pick a due date and click "Save".

Benefits of Huntr's Paid Analytics Features

Huntr has some pretty cool paid analytics features that can be really beneficial if you use Huntr regularly. Below are some ideas of how tracking personal job search analytics using Huntr can be really useful:

Job searching is tough and while strategy is important, it's also a numbers game and results really are unique for everyone. By recording your progress in Huntr and paying for the analytics feature you'll be able to monitor not only how many applications you submit but also, your personal employer response rate, interview success rates and more! When used correctly this information is invaluable.

Stuck in a rut? If my current application response rate is 23.5% I have a pretty good chance of getting a response to at least 2 applications with the next 10 I send out. I'll set that as my goal for the next few days and keep working from there. Maybe my response rates are excellent but my interview success rates are waning - that's probably a good sign that I need to up my interview game with more practice and so on.

When used correctly, Huntr can help keep your momentum going by giving you the stats to figure out how you can do better at your job search.

Super low or nonexistent response rates? It's probably time to revamp your resume or work on customizing them more with JobScan.co

Practicing interview questions and preparing for each interview can lead to a higher interview success rate.

Maybe you're doing everything else right and it's time to start networking more or even sending your resume to a real person, etc. - you get the picture.

Most importantly though, if you aren't using Huntr on a regular basis the analytics won't be useful as they're based on you updating your job search status for each position you apply to, interview for etc. so be sure to do that if you're going to pay for this.

Huntr's basic features though for tracking jobs, setting tasks, etc. are free!! So at least use it for that.

This post is part of series on job search best practices. Check out the following posts below for more job searching tips: