This page explains how the guides on this site are produced, what standard a claim has to meet before it is published, and how errors get fixed. It applies to every page on the site.
What we publish
Guides to individual roles, and comparisons between roles that are commonly weighed against each other. We do not publish news, opinion, or sponsored content.
How a guide is researched
- Primary data. For US roles: the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook, O*NET, state licensing boards, and apprenticeship registries. For roles that are licensed differently by state, we say which states we checked.
- Practitioner accounts. Trade publications, union descriptions, professional association material, and published interviews. Where accounts conflict, we describe the conflict instead of picking the more flattering version.
- Pay verification. We start from the official median, then compare it with current postings for the same title in several metro areas. Every range states its source, its geography, and the month it was checked.
- Checking. Every factual claim is checked against the source cited next to it before the page goes live, and the month of the check is stated in the page’s Sources section. Claims that cannot be traced to a source are removed rather than hedged.
Sourcing standards
- Every number has a source and a date.
- Ranges are preferred to single figures, because a single figure implies a precision the underlying data does not have.
- We do not use vague quantifiers — “many”, “most”, “often” — where a figure exists, and we do not use them to paper over a figure we could not find.
- Where a claim is contested or the data is thin, the page says so.
Use of automation
Guides are drafted with the help of software, including language models, and every draft is then checked line by line against the sources it cites. Automation is never treated as a source: it does not invent quotations, people, interviews, or statistics, and a figure that cannot be found in a primary source is deleted rather than estimated. Because the drafting is substantially machine-assisted, the sourcing does the work an author’s memory would otherwise do — which is why every guide ends with its own Sources section and a date.
Review cycle
Pay figures and entry requirements are re-checked at least once every twelve months, and more often in fields where licensing or pay is moving quickly — healthcare, software, and the licensed trades in particular. Each guide states the month its figures were checked in the Sources section at the bottom of the page.
Corrections
When we get something wrong we correct the page and note what changed, rather than editing it silently. To report an error, email 269659595@qq.com with the page URL and, if possible, a source. Corrections take priority over every other kind of message.
Independence
We take no payment for coverage, ranking, or tone. Employers, recruiters, and training providers cannot pay to be included, and affiliate relationships do not influence an assessment — see the affiliate disclosure.
Last updated: November 7, 2026