Your First Job Search Shouldn't Mean Applying Blind to 200 Listings.
Filter out “entry-level” postings that secretly demand 5 years of experience and closed campus ghost jobs. Score each role from 0–100 against your coursework, capstones, and internships for free.
Associate Software Engineer (New Grad)
Coursework, your senior capstone, and a 12-week summer internship satisfy 4 of 5 core technical requirements at the L2–L3 depth the JD actually asks for.
How ShouldApply Scores You Without 5 Years of Experience
Traditional keyword scanners reject new grads because they only look for past job titles. ShouldApply reads the actual depth of your projects, coursework, and internships.
Coursework & Capstones Count
Your university labs, senior capstone, open-source contributions, and summer internships are mapped onto our L1–L5 skill depth scale.
5-Year Trap & Ghost Filter
Automatically flags “entry-level” postings that demand 3–5+ years in the bullet points or were already removed from the employer's careers portal.
Why-Not-100 Point Breakdown
See the exact point cost of every missing skill so you know whether to highlight a class project on your resume or skip the listing entirely.
Everything Your Free Account Unlocks on Day One
0–100 New-Grad Fit Score
Weighs your coursework, capstones, and internships against what the JD actually asks for.
Ghost & Closed Cohort Shield
Verifies listings against official Greenhouse, Lever, and Workday portals to block stale campus posts.
L1–L5 Skill DNA Profile
Proves your project depth (L1 academic exposure vs L3 hands-on building) even without 3 years of titles.
H-1B & OPT Sponsor Lookup
Cross-checks 33,000+ employers with verified DOL sponsorship filings and approval rates.
JD Complexity & 5-Yr Trap Detector
Flags 'Junior' roles that secretly copy-paste senior L4–L5 requirements or contradictory stacks.
Entry-Level Salary & Offer Benchmarks
City-by-city starting compensation percentiles so you never underprice your first offer.
Entry-level postings that ask for five years of experience.
A lot of first job search time gets spent reading listings that were never realistic or never real: inflated experience requirements, and postings that quietly closed weeks ago. The scoring engine flags unrealistic requirements and stale listings automatically, so you can tell a genuine opening from noise before you write a single cover letter.
When you are applying for your first full-time role out of college, two hidden obstacles eat up 70% of your time: seniority inflation (roles tagged “Entry-Level” so they get cheaper clicks on job boards while requiring 3 to 5 years of experience in the bullets) and stale campus pipelines left online months after the cohort closed.
3 signals that separate a real new-grad opening from a trap
Every listing you score runs through three early-career checks before you spend 45 minutes applying:
L1–L5 skill depth instead of job-title matching
A traditional scanner looks for past full-time job titles you don't have yet. ShouldApply reads how you used each skill in capstones, coursework, research labs, and internships and matches it against the L1–L5 depth the job description actually needs.
Title-to-bullet seniority inflation check
If a listing is labeled “Junior” or “Entry-Level” but demands 4+ years of production ownership or team management, the Why Not 100 breakdown flags the exact point penalty immediately.
Live ATS & campus cohort freshness verification
University and new-grad roles fill in tight waves. ShouldApply checks whether the role is still live on the company's Greenhouse, Lever, or Workday portal and flags listings sitting past 30–45 days.
L1–L5 Skill Depth Calibration
Genuine entry-level roles ask for L2–L3 depth, not L5 architecture.
Here is how ShouldApply translates your academic and internship work onto the same L1–L5 scale used to parse job descriptions:
Why applying to 200 random listings stops working
Industry studies show that first-time job seekers face the highest rate of seniority inflation and ghost listings of any experience bracket. Filtering before you apply turns a 200-application grind into a focused 25-application campaign.
Early-Career Market Benchmarks
What the data says about entry-level job postings
Entry-Level Experience Audit
Seniority InflationAnalysis of LinkedIn 'Entry-Level' listings across US industries
Ask for 3+ years of prior experience despite using the 'Entry-Level' tag
Hiring Manager Survey
Ghost ListingsResume Builder & Revelio Labs hiring-intent studies
Of active listings show no immediate plan to hire or were left open after cohorts filled
Freshness Window
Callback RateApplication response tracking by posting age
Higher interview callback rate when applying to verified roles under 14 days old
Start free. Upgrade if you need more.
Free
$0
- 5 searches a day
- 3 job scores a week
- Scored against your real resume, with the reasoning
- Ghost-job and authenticity checks on every listing
- Save and track roles you're interested in
Pro
$29.99/month
- Unlimited searches and scores after you upgrade
- Background scanning, so new matches arrive without you searching
- A daily email with your best new matches
- Resume tailoring per role
- Interview prep built from the job description
- Auto-Apply: fills out applications and queues them for your approval
Frequently asked questions for new grads
Is it actually free?
Yes. The free plan gives you 5 searches a day and 3 full job scores a week, each with the complete 5-dimension breakdown. No card required to start. New accounts also get a 14-day trial with a higher allowance: 10 searches a day and 50 scores, before settling to the free tier.
How many jobs can I score?
3 a week on the free plan, after your 14-day trial's 50 scores run out. Pro removes the cap along with unlimited searches, resume tailoring per job, and interview prep, at $29.99/month.
What if I don't have much work experience?
The score reads your resume as a whole, including your education and whatever experience you do have, and weighs it against what a specific listing actually requires rather than a flat years-of-experience cutoff. The Why Not 100 breakdown then shows exactly which requirement is pulling your score down, so you know if a gap is worth applying anyway or worth skipping.
How does ShouldApply score my internships, senior capstone, and coursework?
Instead of using a rigid full-time years-of-experience filter, the scoring engine parses every project, lab, capstone, and internship on your resume and rates each technical or domain skill on an L1 to L5 depth scale. If an entry-level role asks for L2 SQL and L3 Python scripting, your university projects and summer internship receive full credit.
How does it spot fake 'entry-level' listings that actually want 5 years of experience?
Many companies tag a job as 'Entry-Level' on LinkedIn or aggregator boards so more candidates see it, while pasting mid-level L4 requirements (3 to 5+ years of ownership) in the body. ShouldApply compares the title tag against the actual bullet requirements and flags Seniority Inflation in the Why Not 100 breakdown before you waste time tailoring a cover letter.
Does ShouldApply show which employers sponsor H-1B or hire OPT/CPT graduates?
Yes. Every job card cross-references over 33,000 employer H-1B disclosure filings from the U.S. Department of Labor so international students on F-1 OPT or STEM OPT can immediately see historical filing volume, approval rates, and sponsored salary benchmarks.
More Tools for First-Time Job Seekers
Free Ghost Job Checker
Paste any listing URL to verify posting age and live employer portal status.
L1–L5 Skill Depth Guide
See how university projects and internships map onto our 5-level scale.
Why Not 100 Gap Explainer
Learn how every missing skill or experience requirement is weighted.
H-1B & OPT Sponsor Database
Search 33,000+ employers by historical visa filings and starting salaries.