As you start a new job as a fresh graduate or explore your career options, it's always best to keep track of the information of potential employers. If you apply to several jobs at once, it can become quite daunting to remember each company's information and your status with them. Here at Makisu, we explored various applications of how we can easily track and organize your employer information with a user friendly and familiar interface.

Using a cloud-based software like Airtable was our solution. The beauty of Airtable is that with its spreadsheet-like interface, you are able to easily organize individual information such as the company name, job position, job description, etc. into relational bases that also update in real time. Each field is customized and stored it into different types of information like text, select options, file attachments, checkboxes, and more.

After exploring the possibility of using Airtable as a tracking medium for individual records, we realized that it can be a bit confusing at first to use but once you familiarize yourself with it, it's very easy to use.

In this case, we used Airtable to track resume submissions of Xavi, a fresh graduate applying to a new Software Engineering job in San Francisco. To record his job applications, the base was organized to contain the following fields:

• Interview Stage
• Job URL
• Job Description
• Company Name
• Job Title
• Location
• Job Description
• General Job Type
• Job Level
• Resume Submitted
• Notes

The first column to the left, contains a formula (concatenate) that provides a short summary of the company name and job title.

Note that under Interview Stage, the column contains select options which include: Interested, Resume Submitted, Recruiter Screen, Coding Challenge, Technical Interview, On Site, Phone Interview, Offer Extended, Offer Accepted, and Application Closed.

After categorizing, he can now fill in each field. This would be the typical scenario of what he would do on Airtable:

1. He searches online for job openings that he is interested in. He finds a Software Engineer position at Amazon and adds the URL to Airtable.
2. He inputs the job link under Job URL then the assistant will input the other fields like company name Amazon, job title, Software Engineer, and so on.
3. He will select in Interview Stage any of the following options said above depending on his status.
4. If he is qualified, he will submit his resume online, input the date of when he submitted it under the Resume Submitted column, and changes the Interview Stage status accordingly.
5. If he is called for a screening, interview, or coding challenge, he will update the Interview Stage again accordingly.
6. He will repeat the same process for the other job applications he is interested in.

It was definitely a breeze using this as a resume submission tracking tool because aside from the real time updates, the interface made it easier to identify his status per company. Fields are easily customizable and can vary depending on the given resume submission preferences of the client.

Other reasons why we approve the use of Airtable is because you can easily group and filter categories without the use of a query unlike regular spreadsheets. It automatically groups and filters categories into individual mini tables for easy identification and its dynamic reorganization of page components make linking information very easy. Lastly, Airtable encourages easy collaborative experience; just like a Google Spreadsheet, you can share a base with a client and once it's shared, it can easily be viewed or edited by both sides.

For these reasons, we highly encourage the use of Airtable for tasks like these so it can easily be understood by both the virtual assistant and the client.