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Comparisons

Job-Search Comparisons

Two approaches, weighed against criteria fixed in advance — with the selection effects named and any commercial relationship disclosed on the page.

Publication status

No comparisons are published yet.

Comparison pages are the most commercially compromised format on the careers internet. The usual pattern is a ranking written backwards from an affiliate agreement, with criteria selected to produce the intended winner.

The comparisons planned here are between methods rather than products: referral versus cold application, tailoring versus volume. Method comparisons are where a job seeker actually has a decision to make, and nobody pays a commission on the answer.

Read the conflict-of-interest policy

Planned

Five comparisons, with the criteria that would decide each.

Publishing the criteria first is the point. If a later page reaches its conclusion on some other basis, the change will be visible.

  1. Referral versus cold application

    Decided on: Interview rate, offer rate, time to first response, and how much of the gap survives adjusting for candidate differences.

  2. Tailored resume versus a single strong resume

    Decided on: Interview rate per application against time cost per application.

  3. Recruiter outreach before versus after applying

    Decided on: Response rate, interview rate, and the risk of being screened out.

  4. Platform apply versus company career site

    Decided on: Completion rate, whether the application reaches the same system, and what each route records.

  5. Manual application versus automated volume

    Decided on: Applications per hour, interview rate per application, and interview rate per hour spent.

Standard

How a comparison is allowed to reach a conclusion.

  • Criteria fixed before the verdict

    The measures a comparison will be decided on are stated at the top of the page, before any result. Criteria chosen after the fact can justify any conclusion.

  • “It barely matters” is a valid finding

    A comparison is allowed to conclude that two approaches perform about the same, or that the evidence cannot separate them. That answer saves a reader more time than a manufactured winner.

  • Selection effects named

    Most job-search comparisons are contaminated by who chooses each route. Where the difference is likely to be the people rather than the method, the page says so rather than reporting the raw gap.

  • Commercial relationships disclosed

    If a compared product is owned by, affiliated with, or paying Jobsearch.ing in any way, that is stated on the page itself — not in a footer — and a competitor is allowed to win.

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