Understand your calculator result

1. What does the final score mean?

It is the sum of five category contributions. Each contribution equals that category's score (−1 to +1) multiplied by its normalized priority share. Positive values favor the new job; negative values favor the current job. It is a comparison of your inputs, not an objective grade.

2. Is +0.24 a probability?

No. It does not mean a 24% chance of success, happiness, or regret. A final score of +0.24 falls in “Leans toward switching” and shows the net weighted advantage produced by the model.

3. Why are priorities converted into percentages?

The sliders describe relative importance. Their values are divided by their total so the five shares add to 100%. This makes each category's influence visible and keeps the final score on a consistent −1 to +1 scale.

4. Why does 10/10/10/10/10 equal 1/1/1/1/1?

Both profiles give every category the same relative importance, so both normalize to 20% each. Raising every slider equally does not make the decision “more important”; only the ratios between sliders matter.

5. What if every priority is zero?

The calculator stops and asks you to choose at least one priority above zero. With no total priority, percentages cannot be calculated and no recommendation is generated.

6. How does PTO affect the result?

Each PTO day is treated as eight hours. Annual PTO hours are divided by 52 and subtracted from weekly work-plus-commute load. More PTO therefore improves Free Time; it is not part of Quality of Life or Benefits.

7. Does Remote automatically score better than On-site?

No. Work Setup is descriptive only and has zero direct scoring effect. Enter its consequences separately through office days, commute, hours, stress, happiness, growth, and benefits. Changing only the setup label leaves the final score unchanged.

8. How does the calculator value commute?

It counts time, not money: one-way minutes × 2 × office days ÷ 60 gives weekly commute hours. Those hours enter Free Time alongside work hours and PTO. Transport expense is not currently scored.

9. Why is expected bonus included with salary?

Money compares annual salary plus the bonus you realistically expect to receive. The bonus is an estimate, not guaranteed compensation. Taxes, equity, retirement match, health-plan value, and sign-on awards are outside this version.

10. How are Stress and Happiness scored?

Lower expected stress and higher expected happiness favor the new job. Each change is divided by five and capped at ±1; the two sub-scores are averaged 50/50 into Quality of Life.

11. Why does Career Growth have three inputs?

Learning and skill growth, advancement potential, and future career opportunities can move differently. Each difference is divided by five, capped at ±1, and the three are averaged equally.

12. What does Benefits include?

It is your own 1–10 overall assessment of the employment benefits package. A five-point difference reaches the category cap. Work Setup and PTO are not included in Benefits, preventing them from being counted twice.

13. Why are category scores capped at ±1?

The caps prevent an extreme input difference in one category from growing without limit. They are deliberate model boundaries, not claims about the maximum real-world importance of a factor.

14. What do the recommendation labels mean?

Scores from +0.30 to +1 are “Strong case for switching”; +0.10 to below +0.30 “Leans toward switching”; above −0.10 to below +0.10 “Close call”; above −0.30 to −0.10 “Leans toward staying”; and −1 to −0.30 “Strong case for staying.” Exact ±0.10 and ±0.30 boundaries enter the adjacent directional band.

15. What does “What could change this result?” do?

It tests valid changes to one new-job input at a time while holding everything else—including priorities—constant. It searches toward adjacent recommendation bands and may also show a time change that improves the score without crossing a band.

16. Does sensitivity analysis tell me what to negotiate?

No. It reveals which single estimates could change the model's label. A displayed salary, schedule, or rating can become a question to investigate, but feasibility and negotiation strategy remain yours.

17. Why might a useful change not appear?

The engine searches set increments and valid ranges, returns a small representative set, and changes only one variable at a time. It does not test packages of changes, current-job inputs, Work Setup labels, or priority changes.

18. What is not included?

Among other things: taxes, equity, retirement match, health-plan pricing, transport costs, job security, manager and team quality, culture, ethics, location risk, family constraints, and confidence in an offer's promises. Use these as a separate decision checklist.

19. Is my calculator input stored?

The calculation runs in your browser and the site does not send the values you enter to a Job Calculator database. The site uses Google Analytics and includes the Google AdSense script; see the Privacy Policy for third-party data practices.

20. Is this professional career or financial advice?

No. It is a transparent decision-support tool. Check uncertain offer details and consult qualified people when your decision involves financial, legal, immigration, health, or other high-stakes consequences.