Postings reach us from everywhere: boards we watch, communities where generalists compare notes, readers who forward a link with "this looks like you people." Whatever the source, every posting goes through the same read before it can appear on the board. Most don't survive it.
The title is a guess
Job titles are the least reliable line in any posting. "Chief of Staff" can mean a calendar with better branding, or it can mean running half the company. "Operations Manager" can be one spreadsheet lane, or everything the founders no longer have hands for. So the title gets treated as a guess, and the read starts below it: what does the day-to-day actually ask for? Who does this person talk to in a normal week? What breaks if the role stays unfilled?
When the answer spans functions, the posting stays in the running, whatever it's called. When a sweeping title sits on top of a single narrow lane, it doesn't.
The breadth test
The question we ask of every survivor: does this role reward moving across functions, or merely tolerate it?
A recent example. A fractional CFO posting arrived looking portfolio-shaped: part-time, senior, flexible. The scope, on an actual read, was fund accounting: one function, one lane, no decision the role owns outside it. A specialist would be happier in that seat, and the company would be happier with a specialist. It didn't make the board.
The other pattern that fails this test is the posting that wants five specialists in one salary: run marketing, close the books, ship the product, answer support. That isn't a range-friendly role; it's understaffing with a job title. Breadth on the board means the range is what the role runs on, not a way to shrink the payroll.
The apply test
A role only earns a listing if you can actually get to it: the application link goes to the real posting, the posting is still open, and applying doesn't dead-end in a form that was retired last quarter. Job boards rot quietly; listings here get re-checked after they go up, and a role that closes comes down.
Turning roles down is the point
The result is a board you can read end to end. Every role carries a "why it's here" line, which is the read above, condensed: what the posting actually asks for and why that's a fit for a career built sideways.
Browse the board to see what survived this week. If you want the roles ranked against your own pattern rather than everyone's, the quiz does that.