Move your job applications into ApplyKoala with AI (from a spreadsheet or another tracker)
Xiang (Arnold) Shang · · 5 min read
Short answer: connect your AI to ApplyKoala, give it your spreadsheet or export, and say “move my job search into ApplyKoala”. There is no import format to learn: the AI reads your columns, whatever they are called, and saves each job, its status, the day you applied and the day each answer came. A few hundred rows take minutes.
What you need
- An AI that can use ApplyKoala. Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code or Codex, connected as shown on the MCP page. It takes about a minute.
- Sync turned on in ApplyKoala, because the AI saves into your account. New accounts can try it free for a week.
- Your records in one place the AI can read. See the next section.
1. Get your records out
Whatever you used before, you need something the AI can open:
- A spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers): the file itself, or save it as CSV.
- Notion or Airtable: export the table as CSV.
- Another job tracker: if it can export CSV or Excel, use that. If it cannot, open its list of applications, select everything and paste it into a text file.
- Nothing written down, only emails: an AI that can read your email can rebuild the list from application confirmations and replies. Let your AI handle your job search email shows how to set that up safely.
Column names do not matter. “Date applied”, “Applied on” and “Sent” all work, and so do your own status words, like “ghosted” or “phone screen done”. If a column could mean two things, the AI should ask you.
2. Say one sentence
Put the file where the AI can read it (in the chat, or in the folder Claude Code or Codex is working in) and send:
Move my job search from my-job-search.csv into ApplyKoala: every job, its status and the dates in the file. Keep the notes and any interview. Do not make anything up. When you are done, tell me in three lines what you moved and anything you could not.Change the file name to yours. That is the whole import.
I tried exactly this with a made-up spreadsheet of six applications: two rejections, one interview, one offer and two with no answer yet. Claude moved all six on the first try, with every date from the file. It also said what it could not move: there was no job description or salary in the file.
What comes across
| From your file | In ApplyKoala |
|---|---|
| Company, job title, link | A saved job under that company |
| Status (applied, interviewing, rejected, offer…) | The application’s status |
| The day you applied | The date sent |
| The day an answer came (rejection, interview, offer) | That step on the application’s timeline, on that day |
| Notes | The application’s notes, marked as added by your AI |
| An interview with a date and time | On the application and on your calendar |
| A recruiter’s name and email | A contact, if the file has them |
The dates stay. A rejection from September is on the timeline in September, not on the day you moved it, so your dashboard shows how your search really went.
Skipped steps are filled in. An offer with no interview written down gets an interview step on the same day, because an offer always comes after one. A good AI tells you when it did that.
What does not come across by itself
- The job description, if it is not in your file. Ask the AI to open each link and save the posting; postings that have been taken down cannot be recovered.
- Which resume you sent. ApplyKoala does not guess. If your file says which version went where, the AI can attach it; otherwise the application has no resume, and you can add one later.
- Anything your file does not say. The AI is told not to fill gaps. Missing salary, location or contact details stay empty.
3. Check it
Open Applications and sort by date. Look at a few you remember well: the status, the date, the note. Then ask the AI:
List any row from the file that you did not move, or moved with a guess, and why.Fix anything wrong by telling the AI (“Contoso was a rejection, not closed”), or change it on the page yourself.
Questions
Do I have to clean up my spreadsheet first? No. Mixed date formats, empty cells and your own status words are fine. If the sheet has rows that are not applications (totals, headings, ideas for later), say so in your message. If something is unclear, the AI should ask instead of guessing.
What if I run it twice? ApplyKoala recognises a job it already has by its link or its job board number, so the same job is not saved twice. A job without a link is compared by title, company and place; if it looks like one you already have, the AI is asked which one you mean instead of saving a copy.
How big a file can it handle? Hundreds of rows are fine. The AI saves up to 25 applications at a time, so a long file is a few minutes of work. If you reach the daily limit for changes, the AI is told and can finish the next day.
Is my file sent anywhere? To the AI you use, because it has to read it, and into your own ApplyKoala account. Nothing goes to anyone else. If the file has things you do not want the AI to see, delete those columns first.
Can I undo it? Each job and application can be deleted from its page, and a version replaced by the AI can be switched back for 30 days. A backup before you start is still a good idea.
I do not have an AI connected. Can I still move my records? Yes, by hand: add each job from the Jobs page. If you keep tracking in a spreadsheet instead, the free job application tracker template has a status column and a summary tab.
Everything here works on paper. If you would rather not keep the paper,the app does this bit — paste a posting and it fills in the details, and it all stays on your own computer.