Kept a rejection spreadsheet for six months and the pattern that finally jumped out wasn't the one I expected

Tracked every application in a spreadsheet for six months, company, role, date, outcome, thinking the pattern would be about my resume or which companies were pickier. Turned out the real pattern was timing, almost every callback came from applications submitted within 48 hours of the posting going up, didn't matter how tailored the later ones were. Started checking the board obsessively instead of batching applications weekly. Annoying lesson but at least it's an actionable one.