Early-career hiring is broken.
Job titles that mean nothing. "Entry-level" roles demanding three years of experience. Salary ranges that might as well say "competitive" (translation: we're not telling you). And if you see "early-career friendly" in a job description? It could mean absolutely anything—or nothing at all.
The Palpable Index exists to fix that. Here's exactly how we built it, why we score companies the way we do, and why we believe combining AI with human judgment is the only way to create something early-career candidates can actually trust.
The Palpable Score is a 0–100 score evaluating how well a company hires, supports, and develops early-career talent.
It is not:
It is a structured assessment of observable hiring behaviour—how companies actually engage with people at the very start of their careers, when it matters most.
Every company on Palpable is evaluated across five pillars. Each represents a critical stage in the early-career journey. Together, they form the full picture.
The question: Can you actually get in the door?
This pillar measures whether a company genuinely creates opportunities for people without prior full-time experience. We look at the availability, design, and accessibility of early-career, graduate, intern, and junior roles.
Companies score highly when they consistently advertise roles clearly intended for early-career talent, use inclusive job titles, and set realistic experience requirements. Open graduate pathways, internships that convert to full-time roles, and junior positions that don't secretly demand mid-level experience all count.
Why it matters: Access is the first—and often hardest—hurdle. If you can't reasonably qualify for roles, nothing else in the process matters.
The question: Is the process actually fair?
This pillar evaluates how clear, predictable, and equitable the hiring process is from a candidate's perspective.
Strong performance means transparent job descriptions, published salary ranges, clear role expectations, and hiring processes that test relevant skills rather than pedigree. It also considers whether companies communicate timelines, next steps, and decisions in ways that respect candidates' time.
Why it matters: Early-career applicants are disproportionately impacted by opaque hiring. This pillar captures whether a company runs a process that builds trust—or one that leaves you refreshing your inbox and wondering if you've been ghosted.
The question: What happens after you're hired?
This pillar assesses whether early-career employees are given the structure and support they need to succeed.
Companies score well with structured onboarding, training programmes, mentorship, and clear managerial guidance. Graduate schemes, buddy systems, formal learning budgets, and defined skill-development pathways are strong signals.
Why it matters: Early-career hires aren't finished products. Companies that invest in learning and support treat junior talent as long-term investments, not disposable output.
The question: Can you actually afford to work here?
This pillar examines whether early-career compensation is fair, transparent, and sustainable.
High scores come from clear salary bands, market-aligned pay, paid internships, and stable contracts. Companies are penalised for unpaid or underpaid roles, vague compensation structures, and excessive reliance on precarious arrangements for junior workers.
Why it matters: Opportunity shouldn't come at the expense of rent. For many candidates, fair pay is the difference between being able to take a role or being priced out of an industry entirely.
The question: Does this role actually launch your career?
This pillar looks beyond the first role to what early-career hires actually gain from starting at a company.
We evaluate progression pathways, internal mobility, skill development, and whether early-career employees move into more senior or higher-impact roles over time. Companies score highly when early-career talent demonstrably advances—either internally or into strong external opportunities.
Why it matters: This pillar asks whether a company leaves people better positioned than when they joined. A high score signals genuine launchpads, not dead ends.
The five pillars define what we measure. The methodology defines how we measure it.
We collect a wide range of publicly observable signals:
Marketing claims are treated as weak signals unless backed by observable hiring behaviour. We're not interested in what companies say—we care about what they do.
To minimise bias and avoid over-reliance on any single model, Palpable uses three independent AI systems.
Each AI scores every company independently across all five pillars, applies the same scoring rubric, and produces a full pillar-level breakdown. We then compare outputs and apply a consensus mechanism. Where scores align, confidence is high. Where they diverge, the company is flagged for deeper review.
Why three? This approach reduces noise, model bias, and spurious certainty. No single AI gets the final say.
AI alone isn't enough for something as nuanced as early-career hiring.
Every company score is reviewed by a human analyst who validates that evidence has been interpreted correctly, applies context AI can miss (like regional norms or mislabelled roles), ensures alignment with Palpable's early-career definitions, and resolves edge cases consistently.
Any adjustment must be grounded in observable signals and mapped back to the five pillars. No gut feelings, no vibes.
Final pillar scores are normalised to ensure consistency across sectors and geographies, then aggregated into a single 0–100 Palpable Index score.
This makes scores comparable across employers while preserving meaningful differences in early-career hiring quality.
The Palpable Index isn't a one-off badge you earn and forget about. Scores are updated as hiring practices evolve, new roles are posted, or additional evidence becomes available.
This ensures the Index reflects how companies hire today—not how they hired three years ago when they launched that graduate scheme they've since quietly abandoned.
Purely manual rankings don't scale. Fully automated rankings lack accountability.
By combining a five-pillar framework grounded in the early-career journey, three-AI consensus scoring for consistency, and human-in-the-loop review for nuance and trust, the Palpable Index delivers a hiring signal that is rigorous, explainable, and built for early-career talent.
Our goal is simple: to make early-career hiring legible, comparable, and fair—for everyone starting out.
Because if you're trying to launch your career, you deserve to know which companies will actually help you do it.
Do you have any suggestions on how we can improve our methodology. Feel free to reach out at john@bepalpable.com