CAREER DECISION ENGINE

Compare two jobs beyond salary.

Calculate compensation, time cost, commute cost and a transparent Career Decision Score. You choose the priorities; the tool shows the trade-offs.

Job A

Annual salary ($)

Annual bonus ($)

Hours worked / week

Commute hours / week

Commute cost / week ($)

PTO days / year

Flexibility (1–10)

Growth potential (1–10)

Job B

Annual salary ($)

Annual bonus ($)

Hours worked / week

Commute hours / week

Commute cost / week ($)

PTO days / year

Flexibility (1–10)

Growth potential (1–10)

Your priorities

These weights determine the Decision Score. They are not a universal ranking of what makes a job good.

Financial value weight (%)

Time value weight (%)

Flexibility weight (%)

Growth weight (%)

Comparison

What is the Career Decision Score?

The Career Decision Score is a transparent comparison model for two job options. Instead of hiding assumptions inside an algorithm, CareerWiseO shows the four components: financial value, time value, flexibility and growth. You can change the weights to reflect what matters to you.

Real Cost of a Job

A job's headline salary is only one part of its economic value. The tool estimates annual commute expense and combines working hours with commute hours to show an effective hourly compensation figure. This makes the time burden visible alongside the salary.

How the calculation works

Annual compensation: salary + expected annual bonus.
Commute cost: weekly commute cost × 52 weeks.
Annual time commitment: weekly work hours + weekly commute hours, adjusted for estimated PTO days.
Effective hourly compensation: annual compensation minus estimated commute expense, divided by estimated annual work and commute hours.
Decision Score: weighted normalized values for financial value, time value, flexibility and growth. The weights are user-controlled.

Why a higher salary can be worth less

Suppose Job B pays $20,000 more but requires substantially more working and commuting time. The extra salary may still be worthwhile, but its value per hour can be much closer to Job A than the headline salary suggests. That is the reason to compare both money and time.

Important limitations

This is an educational decision aid, not financial or career advice. It does not estimate taxes, health insurance, retirement matching, equity risk, job security or the personal value of a manager and team. Growth and flexibility ratings are subjective. Use the score as one input into a broader decision.