Your Data
One human-readable file holds your whole search — here is every column, and who writes what.
Most job-search tools keep your history in their database. CareerForge keeps
it in one file on your computer: job_search_tracker.csv. CSV is the
plainest data format there is — open it in Excel, Numbers, Google Sheets, or
a text editor and you'll see exactly what every part of CareerForge sees.
Nothing hides behind an export button, because there's nothing to export
from.
This is worth a moment's appreciation: if you stop using CareerForge tomorrow, you lose nothing. The file is yours, readable forever, by anything.
The 14 columns
Every application is one row with these fields, in this order:
| # | Column | What it holds | Who fills it in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | date | The application date (YYYY-MM-DD) | /apply |
| 2 | company | Company name | /apply |
| 3 | sector | Industry, e.g. Software, Fintech | /apply |
| 4 | role | The role title | /apply |
| 5 | role_type | e.g. Full-time, Contract | /apply |
| 6 | channel | How you applied — LinkedIn, Referral, Company site… | /apply |
| 7 | status | One of the seven pipeline stages | You, via the dashboard |
| 8 | contact_person | Your contact there, if any | /apply, or you in notes |
| 9 | fit_rating | The 0–100 fit score from the evaluation | /apply |
| 10 | notes | Anything you want to remember | You, via the dashboard |
| 11 | cv_file | Path to the exact CV PDF sent | /apply |
| 12 | cover_letter_file | Path to the exact cover letter PDF | /apply |
| 13 | source | Link to the original posting | /apply |
| 14 | last_updated | When the row last changed | Stamped automatically |
Who writes what — the contract
Three actors touch this file, each with a strictly limited role:
/applyonly appends. A finished application becomes one new row at the bottom (status Draft). It never modifies an existing row — your history can't be rewritten by a later run.- The dashboard edits exactly three cells:
status(legal moves only),notes, and the self-stampinglast_updated. Every other column is read-only in the UI. - You can edit anything, any time, in any spreadsheet app. It's your file. The dashboard simply re-reads it and the charts follow.
That discipline is why the dashboard's numbers are trustworthy: the factual record is written once at application time, and only the things that genuinely change — where the application stands, what you've learned — ever change.
The status values
The status column accepts exactly seven values — Draft, Sent,
Interview, Offer, Rejected, Withdrawn, Closed — and the dashboard
enforces which moves between them are
legal. If
you're editing the file by hand, keeping to those seven keeps the charts
meaningful.
Friends of the tracker
A few other files live alongside it, all local, all gitignored:
- Your profile — the documents
/setupbuilt; the source of truth for every CV. - The seen-jobs registry — every posting
/searchhas shown you, so duplicates never come back. - Your generated PDFs — each application's CV and cover letter, exactly as produced, linked from columns 11 and 12.
Where each one lives — and why none of them ever leaves your machine — is covered next, in Privacy.