About this site

Last updated: 2025

What this site is

A free, browser-side collection of 32 focused utility tools for English-speaking job seekers interviewing in New York City. Each tool addresses a specific, repeatable friction point — STAR story strength scoring, NY cost-of-living salary math, cold outreach personalization, RSU tax drag, recruiter-vs-hiring-manager messaging, and the corporate-speak translators that no textbook teaches.

All tools run entirely in your browser. There is no account creation, no server-side storage of your inputs, no analytics that fingerprint individual users, and no email follow-ups.

The site is supported by display advertising (Google AdSense) — see our Privacy Policy for details.

Why we built it

Most interview-prep content online was written for a national US audience and treats "New York" as interchangeable with any other major metro. It isn't. Several concrete examples:

A $130,000 base salary in Manhattan is not equivalent to $130,000 in Austin, Denver, or Atlanta — once you account for NY state income tax, NYC resident tax, federal tax, and rent in a 30-minute commute radius.
The Wall Street, Silicon Alley, Madison Avenue, and NYC healthcare industries use overlapping but distinct jargon. A "pitch" means different things to a Goldman interviewer than to a Vice Media one.
NYC's third-party recruiter ecosystem behaves differently than SF's. Many gatekeep aggressively, screen for visa status on the first call, and ghost without feedback.
MTA commute time changes the calculus on "free lunch" perks and 9-to-6 schedules more than in any other US city.
Salary history questions are banned in NYC (effective 2017, enforcement via the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection), but most candidates don't know how to deflect cleanly.

These tools exist to fill those gaps with concrete, scorable utilities — not motivational content.

Who this is for

English-speaking professionals interviewing in NYC — relocators, recent grads, career switchers, international candidates on OPT/H1B, and people re-entering the workforce.
Roles roughly $60k–$250k base (mid through senior individual contributor). Above $400k the comp math, equity structure, and negotiation tactics change materially — these tools will understate complexity at that level.
Candidates who want a second-pass scoring, not a primary decision. Use these as a sanity check after you've drafted a story, an email, or an offer comparison — not as a replacement for a real conversation.

Who this is NOT for

Executive-level candidates ($400k+ base or C-suite). Comp structure, equity negotiation, and search-firm dynamics are different enough that these tools will mislead you.
Commission-only or heavy-variable sales roles. The salary calculators here assume a relatively flat comp curve; sales comp modeling is a separate discipline.
Government, K-12 education, or academic roles. Salary scales, tenure, and benefits structures are publicly defined and not what these tools model.
Anyone needing legal, tax, or immigration advice. The Visa Sponsorship Likelihood Assessor is a research aid, not legal counsel. Talk to an immigration attorney for actual case advice.

How the tools work technically

Every tool is a single self-contained HTML file. There is no build step. Tailwind CSS loads from a CDN; Font Awesome icons load from a CDN; all JavaScript is inlined at the bottom of each file. There is no backend, no API call, no database. Your inputs are processed in your browser and never sent anywhere.

This is a deliberate choice: it means the tools work offline once loaded, they cannot leak your draft interview answers to a third party, and the site can be hosted as static files.

Limitations & known issues

Salary and tax calculations are estimates based on publicly available 2024-2025 NY state and NYC tax tables. They do not account for every deduction, credit, or phase-out. Verify with a CPA before making financial decisions.
Industry jargon definitions are sourced from publicly available glossaries and recruiter-published content. They are not authoritative dictionaries — usage varies by firm.
STAR scoring is heuristic, not a substitute for human feedback. It catches the obvious weak patterns (vague verbs, missing metrics) but cannot tell you if your story is the right story for the role.
Visa Sponsorship Likelihood Assessor reads public signals. It cannot see whether a specific hiring manager has an open requisition slot.
Networking email templates are designed for a 25-45 year old professional context. Adjust tone for more conservative or academic fields.

Contact

This is an independently operated utility site. We don't have a support inbox, but we read feedback through the standard browser mechanisms. If you find a bug or have a correction, please note the specific tool page in any correspondence.

Frequently asked questions

How do I use About this site step by step without mistakes?

Follow the order given in the usage section: Why this site exists, what it does well, and where it stops being useful. The step-by-step part matters less than the unit check that sits inside it. Confirm every unit matches the thing you are actually trying to measure before you press calculate - that single check catches more wrong answers than any other habit, and it costs about ten seconds.

What are the common mistakes when using About this site?

Most common mistakes come down to four habits: entering 20 when the field expects 0.2 because the field is a percentage; leaving a field blank and accepting the default without checking what it stands for; changing one input and reading a result that was calculated before the change; and quoting the output as an exact figure when the page describes it as a reference estimate. Press calculate again after any edit, and treat the number as a reference point rather than a final answer.

How do I read the result from About this site?

Read the final figure first, then come back to this section for the conditions behind it: Why this site exists, what it does well, and where it stops being useful. Keep two things apart: the number itself, which comes from the values you typed, and the assumptions it depends on, which decide whether that number is meaningful. The page sets out what a higher or lower result means for your case, so check that direction as well as the magnitude.

Can I act on the About this site result directly?

Treat it as one reference sheet before you decide, rather than as the answer itself: Salary and tax calculations are estimates based on publicly available 2024-2025 NY state and NYC tax tables. They do not account for every deduction, credit, or phase-out. Verify with a CPA before making financial decisions. Industry jargon definitions are sou The output describes a magnitude under the conditions you entered. It does not include what it actually costs to act, what might change while you act, or how the other side behaves. Before you commit, compare the result against reality and note which assumptions do not hold where you are.