Now You Can See Who Your Competitors Are When Applying For A Job

If you've ever wondered about the competition you're up against when applying for a job, there's now a way to find out.

TheLadders has launched a new tool called Scout, which allows its 5 million users to see the qualifications— title, compensation, work history and educational background — of every person that has applied for a specific position.

The tool was created to give applicants a rough idea of their chances and where they stand in the competition pool, Alex Douzet, CEO of the company, tells us.

If other applicants are much more suitable for the job compared to your own qualifications, then you can make the assumption that you will probably not be a top candidate for the position.

Below is a screenshot of what Scout looks like for users. The example is for a Marketing Director position:

This example shows that 50 candidates have submitted their applications so far for this position and the user is currently looking at Candidate 3 out of 50. Candidate 3 currently has a salary of approximately $140,000, 11 to 15 years of experience in this area and has a master's degree from New York University's Stern School of Business.

Furthermore, the example also tells you that the majority of applicants have a $140,000 salary, more than 15 years of experience and a masters degree.

On the other hand, this user — the person checking out the competition — has a salary of $100,000, 8 to 10 years of experience and a bachelor's degree. Although this person isn't the least qualified candidate, they will probably not be considered a top prospect.

Users can continue using the tool to check out the competition after they've applied to a job.

Scout is also useful for salary negotiations. "It's a good way to figure out how much different positions pay without directly asking the company," Douzet says.

Furthermore, you can also use the tool as a way of figuring out the basic qualifications needed for your dream job. For example, if you know you want to become a chief technology officer of a company one day, you can look up those positions and see the qualifications of the candidates applying.

Scout is launching slowly between now and April 1. The company currently has around 30,000 recruiters on its site.