Track Your Job Search

Notion Job Application Tracker: Build It Step by Step

A Notion job application tracker is one database with a row per application. Give it properties for company, role, status and next action, then view the same rows as a board, a sorted table and a calendar. The steps below come from Notion's help pages and were not run by us.

This page is about Notion's database model. If you want the full column list first, see the job application tracker hub, and for the habit around it, how to track job applications. This site is not affiliated with Notion.

What you need

A Notion account and an empty page. Everything below happens on one page that holds a database, so you can keep notes, postings and call summaries next to the list instead of in a separate folder.

Step 1: Create the database as a full page

Create a new page and, under "Get started with", select Table (Notion's create a database page puts it under the ••• menu). The database opens as a full-page database, and Notion says full-page databases "appear just like any other page in your sidebar." A new database starts in Table view.

Name the page "Job applications". The first column holds each application's page name. Put the company there.

Step 2: Add the properties

Each column in a database is a property with a type, and the type decides what you can do with it later. Notion's database properties page lists the types. To add one, click Add property, or the + next to the right-most property, then name it and choose a type.

Property Type Why this type
Company the first column (page name) Each row opens as its own page
Role Text Free wording from the posting
Link URL Opens the posting in a new tab when clicked
Date applied Date Needed for the formula in step 8
Source Select One option per row, for example referral or company site
Contact Text (or Email) A name, or an address that opens your mail client
Status Status Groups the board in step 3
Next action Text One line, for example "email recruiter"
Next action date Date Drives the sort and the calendar

Notion describes Select as letting you "choose one option from a list of tags." It calls Date useful "for deadlines, especially with calendar and timeline views." A URL property opens the link in a new tab, and an Email property launches your mail client. Notes do not need a property. They go in the page body (step 7).

Set up the Status options

Status is built on three groups, To Do, In Progress and Complete, and you can't change them. You add your own options under a group with Add status. A layout that fits a job search (our suggestion, not Notion's):

If you prefer plain tags with no groups, use the Select type instead and add the same six options by typing each one and pressing enter.

Step 3: Add a Board view grouped by Status

Click the + next to the database name or the current view name and choose Board, per Notion's board view page. A board groups by a Status property by default when the database has one. To change that, open the settings menu at the top right, choose Group, and pick Status or another Select property.

Each application becomes a card in the column for its status. To move one, click the card, hold, and drag it to the next column. Do this when an application moves from Applied to Interview, and the status updates with it. You can also drag a column heading left or right to reorder the columns.

Step 4: Sort a Table view by Next action date

Add another view the same way, with the + next to the view name and Table from the dropdown, as the table view page describes. Open the settings menu at the top of the database, choose Sort under View settings, and select Next action date. Notion's create a database page uses ascending order for due dates in its example, so the nearest date sits at the top.

Each view keeps its own sorts and filters, so this sort does not touch the board. Open this view each morning and work down from the top.

Step 5: Hide Rejected and No reply with a filter

In the same Table view, open the settings menu, choose Filter under View settings and pick Status. Notion describes the filter as a way to "show or hide data" based on property values. Set the condition so that Rejected and No reply are excluded. The help page does not list the condition names, so pick the option in the menu that excludes a value.

If one rule will not take both options, use "Add advanced filter" on the same page to combine two rules with AND. Closed applications stay in the database, only this view stops showing them.

Step 6: Add a Calendar view on Next action date

Click the + next to the view name and choose Calendar. A calendar needs a Date property, according to Notion's calendar view page, and a database with several date properties can show a calendar for each. Open the settings menu, choose Layout, click "Show calendar by" and select Next action date, not Date applied.

Now each follow-up appears on its day. Move a card to another day when a recruiter pushes a call back.

Step 7: Use the page body for each application

Each row opens into its own page, and everything that does not fit a property goes there. Two things are worth saving on every page:

To have rows open full screen, open the settings menu, choose Layout, then Open pages in, then Full page.

Step 8: Add a days-since-applied formula

This step uses only syntax that Notion documents. Open the slider icon at the top of the database, choose Edit properties, New property, select Formula and then Edit formula, as the formulas page describes. Name the property "Days since applied" and enter:

dateBetween(now(), prop("Date applied"), "days")

On the formula syntax page, dateBetween "Returns the difference between two dates." and takes a unit such as "days". Its example, dateBetween(now(), parseDate("2022-09-07"), "days"), returns 357: the current date comes first, the earlier date second, and the result is positive. The same page says now() "Returns the current date and time." and shows a date property referenced by name, as in prop("Due Date").

If you would rather not use a formula, skip this step. The sort in step 4 already puts the oldest follow-ups first.

Step 9: Duplicate the database for someone else

To share the layout, click the ••• button in the top right of the full-page database. Notion offers "Duplicate with content" and "Duplicate without content", per its intro to databases page. Choose without content to hand over the empty layout, or keep a copy for the next search.

What the Free plan allows

Notion's pricing page lists "Databases including subtasks, dependencies, custom properties and more" on the Free plan. It states that images, videos and file attachments can be "up to 5 MB each", so a long PDF of a posting may not fit. A solo workspace can add as many pages and blocks as it likes, and a Free workspace with several members has a block limit the page does not quantify. Entry limits for databases are Unknown: the page does not give one. Plans change, so read the page itself.

Common problems

When a spreadsheet is the better choice

Pick a spreadsheet if you want many rows on one screen or want to paste data in from elsewhere. A database holds richer notes per application, while a sheet keeps every row in one plain grid. The Google Sheets tracker guide builds the same record in a sheet.

Sources

All pages read on 2026-11-12.

Disclosure

trackyourjobsearch.com is published by the makers of AIHawk, a job application tool. The About page gives details.

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