How to decide if a job is worth applying to

Most people either apply to everything that's roughly relevant, or spend so long deliberating over each posting that they apply to almost nothing. Neither works well. A short, consistent filter gets you to a decision in under two minutes.

Four questions, in order

• Does the actual work match what you want to be doing, not just the job title? A 'Machine Learning Engineer' role that's mostly data pipeline maintenance is a different job than the title suggests.
• Is the seniority realistic for where you are now, not where you'll be in two years?
• Is there a visible compensation range, or enough context (company stage, location, similar roles) to estimate one that meets your floor?
• Are there any hard red flags in the posting itself, like 'fast-paced, wear many hats' repeated three times, vague ownership, or a level of urgency that reads more like understaffing than opportunity?

If the answer to the first two is yes and neither of the last two rules it out, apply. You don't need certainty. You need enough signal to not waste an evening tailoring a CV for a role you'd turn down anyway if offered.

The veto is part of the process, not a failure

It's fine, expected even, to look at a recommended role and decide it's not right, whether that recommendation comes from a recruiter, a job board's suggestions, or Good, Next. Rejecting the wrong opportunities quickly is what makes room to spend real effort on the right ones.