

Ask HN: Software to manage a jobhunt? - gnosis

When you're on a jobhunt, there's a lot to keep track of:<p><pre><code>  - Job ads
  - Notes on companies
  - Contacts
  - Who you've contacted, when, and about what
  - When you've sent out your resume and to whom
  - Interview schedules
  - Followup schedules (who and when to call back
    or send thank-you notes to)
</code></pre>
What software do you use to keep track of it all?<p>Do you use a bunch of plain text files?  Do you break out the old spreadsheet?  JibberJobber?  Something else?
======
devs1010
Actually I started to build something that is a job search "augmentation"
tool, it uses the Indeed.com API and uses a roll-out sidebar to list job
openings and then you can go through them and then mark them blocked, applied
to, saved, etc to filter through them so you never have to look at the full
list again, I built the original solution using the Java stack and used it a
bit for my own purposes, now that I'm getting more into Ruby I think I might
rebuild it using Rails and see if I can make it into a more fully featured
application, I think there is potential to add in more features similar to
what you have mentioned (like being able to associate contact names with a job
ad, etc).

On a side note, something I have realized is how fundamentally broken and
annoying a lot of companies' job application process is. The sites that make
you create an account on some barely working site that looks like it was built
in 1995, then force you to basically manually fill out pieces of your resume
into various input fields, are rather appalling. It is a good way to filter
out the companies that probably wold suck to work for though as you can tell
right away how much they care about interfacing with their employees.

------
ayers
A fellow hacker news member bullrico has thought about this issue and created
quite a cool solution: <http://impressar.io>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3518376>

~~~
gnosis
What I really don't like about solutions like this (and other "software as a
service" sites) is that that the solution provider has access to my private
information and data.

I'd much prefer using a standalone app that runs on my own computer and does
everything from there.

No business has a need to know about which other businesses or people I
contact in my job hunt, or really anything about me or my jobhunt, unless I'm
applying for a job directly with them, and even then what they need to know is
limited to my employment history and such, not about who else I've talked to
during my jobhunt, much less the content of the conversations I've had with
them.

I agree with RMS in that I think sites like impressar (and Facebook and Gmail,
etc..) are really just spyware.

They might be worth using if they somehow managed to convince me my data would
be completely private (ie. if even they didn't know what I was doing, saying,
or who I'm talking to, etc). But that's a very tall order, and until they've
got it together I am going to steer far clear of sites like these.

~~~
polyfractal
Calling it spyware is a bit harsh. The reason a lot of things are going SaaS
is really simple: it's better for business. There are a ton of benefits to
companies:

-Recurring revenue

-Instant upgrade

-Easier support / no wrangling with different platform differences

- _Most_ people like accessing their services from anywhere via the web

-Easier to track user engagement, improve user experience

The list goes on and on. It has nothing to do with wanting all your personal
data. It's a pretty simple business objective.

And, not to be offensive, but who really cares what jobs you are looking at? I
honestly doubt the Impressario guy really cares if you are looking at Megacorp
A or Megacorp B or Social-Startup C.

There are some things to be concerned about privacy - I have my doubts that
this is one of them.

~~~
gnosis
Just because there are business reasons for making SaaS webapps doesn't change
the fact that they do in fact collect private information -- and that brings
with it all the potential for abuse, leaks, sale of the information without my
consent, tracking, spying, etc.

Call it what you will, but I certainly don't want my private information in
the hands of some person or entity I don't trust.

As for who cares what jobs I apply to, you might not have noticed but there's
something called datamining that can link all sorts of innocuous-seeming
information to draw conclusions with serious privacy implications.

For example, before some researchers actually went ahead and did this, who
would have guessed that your Netflix viewing habits could be used to determine
your political preferences or sexual orientation? And would you really want
Netflix and anyone who they sell the information to or anyone who manages to
hack their servers knowing these?

You might not mind, but I bet a lot of other people do. Unfortunately, plenty
of Netflix users probably still don't know that this kind of abuse -- and it
is abuse -- is possible.

Something else that was in the news about a year ago or so is the recent trend
of companies trolling through Facebook to see who your friends are, and
determine from that whether they think you're credit-worth (or worthy of
employment). Again, something apparently innocuous being subverted to have
serious unintended consequences for the victims who were naive enough to give
out their private information.

There are hundreds of examples like these -- there have been many books and
articles written about the trend towards a surveillance society and the loss
of privacy that's overcoming our world, with the advent of highly
sophisticated technologies and the internet.

SaaS sites and the invasion of privacy that they encourage and participate in
are a big part of this problem.

------
eugenijusr
I'm currently working on a similar solution that will have some of those
features - <http://www.gigbasket.com> Beta is due to launch in March 2012.

There are a few similar services implemented already though, but they are
either too complex or too primitive in my opinion, therefore I decided to give
a shot rolling out my own solution. Nevertheless, the ones that I have found
are:

<http://www.jobspeaker.com/>

<http://applymate.com/>

<http://gigcart.com/>

<http://www.jobkatch.com/>

------
vivekmgeorge
Personally nothing. If there was seamless solution that I was aware of I might
use it. Currently I just keep track of everything in my head and it has been
working fairly well thus far. I am sure a more organized approached would be
better. It would definitely be useful for keeping track of who I met with in
person and a little background about them.

~~~
dtromero
I keep track of it in my head as well. However I would love a better system to
keep track of my tailored cover letters and resumes. In my last job search I
had several versions of the same resume going depending on the type of job I
was applying for. I also would tailor my cover letter for every application.

------
bwh2
Google Reader and Google Docs spreadsheet.

