A clearer way to inspect a difficult job decision

Why I built it

I have personally had to evaluate job-switch decisions multiple times. Each comparison mixed facts I could measure—pay, hours, commute, and time off—with uncertain judgments about stress, happiness, and future growth. A larger salary could be exciting while a heavier routine felt worrying. Staying could feel safer while also limiting learning. Keeping all of those trade-offs in my head made it too easy for whichever feeling was strongest that day to dominate.

I built Job Calculator to give that recurring decision a stable structure. It does not remove emotion from the choice; emotion contains useful information. It puts explicit estimates beside it, applies the same rules to both jobs, and shows the arithmetic so a user can challenge the result.

What the tool is—and is not

The calculator compares five scored categories: Money, Free Time, Quality of Life, Career Growth, and Benefits. You decide their relative importance. The output is a weighted comparison of the two jobs you described, not a probability, prediction, instruction, or claim that one career path is objectively correct.

That distinction matters. The model cannot see manager quality, job security, ethics, family needs, health constraints, visa risk, team dynamics, or whether an offer's promises are credible. A useful result should prompt better questions, not end the decision.

How the model evolved

Several iterations removed hidden assumptions and made the remaining choices inspectable. Work Setup is now context only: Remote, Hybrid, and On-site have no automatic rank because preferences differ and their concrete consequences already appear through commute, office days, hours, stress, and happiness. PTO is converted to eight hours per day, averaged across 52 weeks, and included in Free Time. Career Growth separates learning, advancement, and future opportunities rather than hiding them in one impression.

Priority sliders are relative, not independent multipliers. A 10/10/10/10/10 profile therefore has the same 20% shares as 1/1/1/1/1. This keeps the question focused on trade-offs: what matters more compared with everything else?

Transparency over authority

The complete formulas, caps, assumptions, boundary rules, and sensitivity limits are published on How It Works. The FAQ explains common result questions in plainer language. That documentation is part of the product: if a rule does not fit your situation, you should be able to identify it instead of trusting a black box.

This is an independent decision-support project, not professional career or financial advice. No employer, degree, credential, research authority, testimonial, or user count is claimed here. Feedback about unclear assumptions or real decision cases is welcome through the Contact page.