Why I built an app tracker
The hidden tax of applying to hundreds of jobs.
“Just apply to more jobs.”
“It’s a numbers game.”
“The market is saturated.”
And while there’s truth in all of that, it misses a much bigger problem—one that has nothing to do with motivation, skill, or effort.
What no one really talks about is how inefficient, repetitive, and mentally draining the job application process itself has become.
The Myth of “Just Apply More”
On paper, applying to jobs sounds simple: find a role, submit your resume, move on. In reality, every application comes with hidden friction. Tiny tasks that don’t seem like much on their own, but add up quickly when you’re doing them hundreds of times.
The advice is always to apply more, faster. But no one asks what that actually costs in time, focus, and energy.
My Reality: 4.5 Years In, Still Copy-Pasting
I’ve been a software engineer for about 4.5 years. Early in my career, landing roles felt like luck more than anything else. Today, I’m objectively a stronger candidate—better experience, better skills, better judgment.
And yet, the job search still feels brutal.
Not just because of rejection, but because the mechanics of applying haven’t evolved at all.
When I apply to jobs, I still:
Highlight sections of my resume
Copy and paste them into application fields
Lose time just selecting text, reformatting, and re-pasting
Repeat the same steps dozens of times a day
It sounds minor, but when you’re applying to hundreds of roles, it becomes exhausting. And that’s all before you even hear back.
The Repetitive Work No One Counts
Beyond submitting applications, there’s another layer of chaos that slowly builds up:
Which companies have I already applied to?
What role was that recruiter from again?
Did I ever follow up?
Which resume version did I send?
Was this referral warm or cold?
This information ends up scattered everywhere:
Email threads
Notes apps
Half-maintained spreadsheets
Or worse—your memory
There’s no clean system. No feedback loop. No sense of progress. Just noise.
The job hunt doesn’t just reject you—it slowly erodes your sense of control. This is exactly the problem a job application tracker can solve.
LinkedIn Was the Signal
What really confirmed this wasn’t just a “me problem” was LinkedIn.
Every day, I’d see posts like:
“Just crossed 500 applications”
“700 applications later…”
“Over 1,000 applications and still searching”
Different people, different backgrounds, same struggle.
At that point, it became clear: if this many people are experiencing the same friction, the problem isn’t effort or resilience—it’s tooling.
We’re using outdated, improvised systems for a process that demands scale.
Why I Didn’t Just Use a Spreadsheet
Like many people, I tried spreadsheets. They work—until they don’t.
At a certain point:
They become tedious to maintain
They don’t surface what matters
They don’t reduce effort—they add to it
I didn’t want another place to manually log work. I wanted a system that removed friction, not documented it.
I didn’t want to track applications. I wanted to stop thinking about tracking applications.
So I built something for myself - a system that actually simplified the job search process..
What I Optimized For
When building the app, I focused less on features and more on principles:
Speed over perfection — logging an application should take seconds
One source of truth — applications, contacts, and statuses in one place
Reduced repetition — less copying, less mental overhead
Visible progress — even when responses are slow or nonexistent
The goal wasn’t to “win” the job search. It was to make the process survivable.
Who This Is Really For
I didn’t build this for people casually browsing roles.
I built it for:
People applying after long workdays
Engineers burned out by endless forms
Anyone tired of feeling disorganized on top of being rejected
The job hunt already takes enough from us—time, confidence, energy. It shouldn't take our sanity on top of that.
That’s why I built Flood the Market - an app tracker for job applications.
