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The 10-Dimension Fit Card
Every role HQ Career touches is evaluated against these ten dimensions before your name is ever attached. Here's exactly what we look at — and why each one matters.
Get Your Custom Score Built →Most executives search by title and compensation. That's why most executive searches take longer than they should — and end in roles that look right on the surface but feel wrong within a year.
The 10-Dimension Fit Score is the filter HQ Career built to solve that. It's not a personality assessment or a values exercise. It's a structured screen applied to every role in your sourcing run — before a single application is written.
The result: The Right 30™. Roughly 28–32 roles per engagement period, filtered from a pool of several hundred, that meet all ten dimensions. Not "good enough." Not "worth exploring." Roles that fit — on every axis that matters.
Here are the ten dimensions. Use this card to evaluate any opportunity you're considering — or let us build your custom score on the intake call.
Compensation Floor
The minimum total cash you will accept — base, not OTE, not equity.
Most job search waste comes from pursuing roles that can't meet your number. We filter these out before an application is ever drafted.
Scope
The functional remit: P&L ownership, team size managed, budget controlled, and decision rights.
Title inflation is rampant. Two roles with identical titles can have wildly different scopes. We match on substance, not nomenclature.
Team Size
The number of direct and indirect reports — and the management depth you're stepping into.
Executives who build teams from scratch operate differently from those who inherit 200-person orgs. The mismatch is a common source of early attrition.
Reporting Line
Who you report to, and what that relationship structure actually means for autonomy.
Reporting to a CEO who's present is not the same as reporting to a board-appointed observer. We surface this before you're in a room.
Industry
Sectors you want to move toward — and sectors you need to avoid.
Industry fit is bidirectional. Some clients want a clean break; others need domain continuity for credibility. Both are valid. We calibrate accordingly.
Company Stage
Pre-revenue, growth, scale, public, or legacy transformation — and which stage your operating profile fits.
The skills that drive a Series B from $5M to $30M ARR are not the same skills that run a $2B public company. Mismatched stage is the most common search mistake.
Functional Fit
The specific functional work the role requires vs. the functional work you are best at.
Executives often optimize for title and miss that the day-to-day work will be a poor match for their actual strength. We go three layers deeper than the job description.
Cultural Signals
Observable indicators in the job listing, Glassdoor, LinkedIn tenure data, and executive team composition.
Culture is not squishy — it's detectable in how companies write job posts, how long executives stay, and how they describe their own values. We read all of it.
North Star Trajectory
Where this role positions you in 24–36 months — not just what it pays today.
The best next role isn't always the highest-paying one. It's the one that builds the credential, network, or operating proof that opens the door you actually want.
Retention Risk
Flags that make a role likely to end badly — structural, financial, or interpersonal.
A role that ends in 14 months costs more than a slower search. We actively screen for runway risk: undercapitalized companies, founder volatility, unclear succession paths.
How It Works
Your Score Is Built on Intake. Not Assumed.
The 10-Dimension Fit Score isn't a generic template. It's built from your specific profile during the intake call — your real comp floor, your actual operating strengths, the stage where you've done your best work, the industries you want to enter or leave.
Once it's built, every role in your sourcing run is evaluated against it. A role that passes nine dimensions but fails on retention risk doesn't make the cut. A role that looks weak on title but passes all ten gets a full application — because the substance is right.
The filter rate typically runs around 74%. That means for every 100 roles that surface in your target market, roughly 26 make it through to The Right 30™. The others are discarded — not because they're bad opportunities, but because they're not right for you.
That's the difference between a job search and a targeted search. One produces volume. The other produces outcomes.
Free 30-minute consultation. Your score is built during the call — no homework required.
Ready to see your score?
The intake call is free. Your 10-Dimension profile is built during the call.