Track Every Bank Application Clearly
This conversation was generated using Cook'd AI's career assistant and reviewed by Fallon Han from our editorial team for accuracy.
I'm a final-year stats student in Hong Kong targeting sales and trading at a global bank, and I'm on a dependent visa. I keep mixing up my applications because some come from campus, some from referrals, and some from direct apply. I need a tracker that separates each one by source and tells me who owns the next move.
You need a tracker with one row per application, not one row per company. Use fields like source, role, location, visa note, assessment type, current stage, and next owner. That way a campus referral, a direct application, and a recruiter outreach at the same bank stay separate. For example, if your resume is submitted by campus recruiting, the next owner is usually the recruiter or campus team. If you are in HireVue, the next owner is the bank. If you have completed first round and are waiting on superday, the next owner is still the bank or interview coordinator. This keeps you from chasing the wrong contact.
That makes sense, but I also need to know whether the process is resume submission, HireVue, first round, or superday. Sometimes I only remember the bank name and lose track of which stage I am actually in.
Add a stage column with fixed values: resume submitted, HireVue sent, HireVue completed, first round scheduled, first round done, superday invited, superday done, offer, and closed. Then add an assessment type column so you can tell whether the stage is a video interview, phone screen, technical round, or final round. For sales and trading, that helps because one bank may send HireVue after resume submission while another jumps straight to first round. A tracker like this should show both what happened and what is supposed to happen next.
I am also worried about my dependent visa. I want to note where I may need extra checks without making the tracker messy.
Use a short visa status note field, such as no issue expected, sponsorship question pending, or needs confirmation for location. Keep it separate from stage so the process view stays clean. Then add a comment field for anything sensitive, like whether the role is open to your visa status in Hong Kong or if you need to confirm interview location before the superday. That way you can filter risks without burying the application pipeline.
Can the tracker also show ownership clearly so I know if I should wait, follow up with campus recruiting, or reply to a headhunter?
Yes. Add a next owner field with options like me, campus recruiting, recruiter, referral contact, or interview panel. Also add a follow-up date. For example, after a campus submission, the owner may be campus recruiting until they move you to HireVue. After a referral, the owner may be the recruiter. If the status is first round completed and no date is set for superday, you own the follow-up only if the tracker says the next action is yours. This prevents duplicate emails and confusion when you have several banks moving at once.
That would help a lot. I need something simple enough to update every day but detailed enough that I can compare applications across banks.
Then keep the dashboard simple: bank, role, source, assessment type, stage, next owner, follow-up date, and notes. Use color tags for active, waiting, and closed. The key is that every application gets its own record even if the same bank has multiple streams. With that setup, you can quickly see which sales and trading processes are at resume submission, which are in HireVue, and which are waiting on first round or superday.