How ranking works

When an employer looks for candidates, they pick one of their open jobs and we put people in order for that job. There is no score. We don’t show one or sell one, not to employers and not to you. Employers see an order and a short reason or two, such as “In your area”. They decide who to contact.

What helps your place

Most of it is how well you fit that particular job:

• Your specialty. Your function, lines of business, segment, licences, designations and systems against what the job asks for.
• Where you are. Closer ranks higher, using the place on your profile. Remote jobs ignore distance.
• Your words. How much of the job’s wording also appears in your headline, summary and job titles and descriptions. Describing your work in plain terms helps.
• Experience. Whether you have the years the job asks for. Meeting them is full credit. More than that earns nothing extra.
• Expected salary. See below, because you should decide this one with your eyes open.

Some of it is your profile, whatever the job:

• How complete it is.
• Having a photo and a video intro. We only check that you have them. We never look at what is in them.

And some of it is whether you are around:

• Being active recently, and marking yourself as actively looking.
• Having notifications on, and using the iPhone app.
• Replying quickly to employers. No conversations yet counts neither way.

New profiles get a short lift for their first 14 days so they get seen. When people are level, the order rotates each day and differs between employers, so the same people aren’t always on top.

Expected salary

Your expected salary is private. Only employers you apply to can see it, and the reasons employers read never mention it. We do use it to order people, and you should know how:

• Inside the job’s pay range, lower ranks higher, because the employer has more room to negotiate.
• Above the range ranks lower on this point than anyone inside it or below it.
• Below the range counts the same as the bottom of it. Going lower earns nothing more.
• Leaving it blank counts as the middle of the range. You aren’t marked down below someone at the top of the range, or lifted above someone at the bottom.

The expected salary field is a yearly figure, so it isn’t compared with jobs paid by the hour. Enter the number that is true for you, or leave it blank: a low number could win you a place in a list and cost you far more in an offer.

What never affects your place

• Gaps in your employment. We don’t read your work dates for this at all.
• Your age, or anything standing in for it. Long careers don’t rank higher than the years a job asks for.
• Your gender, your race or your name.
• What your photo or video looks or sounds like.
• Paying. An employer’s plan changes nothing about the order, and neither does buying a boost. A boost puts you in a separate block at the top of the page, labelled as paid, and the ranked list below it is untouched.

Who is left out

Ranking changes the order and never removes anyone. Your privacy settings still decide who sees you. Your current employer can’t find you here, however well you fit their job, and neither can a company you have blocked. See the privacy policy.

Questions

Ask at support@switchd.app. A person reads every message.