Work · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Merit – Career mentorship for tech workers
Hello Hacker News! I built a free service where you can schedule 1:1 video mentorship calls with senior ICs and managers in software engineering, product management, and design. The goal is to remove barriers to building a professional network that can help you grow your career like building skills and getting referrals. Right now we’re limited to folks living or working in the US or Canada, but we’re working on expanding beyond that one day. Without logging in, you can browse mentors here: https://www.get-merit.com/mentors Between tech layoffs, hybrid work, and an uncertain…
Merit is a free service that connects tech workers with senior mentors for one-on-one video calls. It matches software engineers, product managers, and designers with experienced professionals who can provide career… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Merit – Career mentorship for tech workers launched in 2023; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
- 1

- 2

- 3
Pathrise▲219Career coaching for students, free until you get a job 🎉
2018 · pathrise.com · its alternatives →
- 4

- 5

- 6PR
2012 · meritful.com · its alternatives →
- 7IM
Find information, resources and relevant links for entrylevel.io. This domain may be for sale.
2020 · entrylevel.io · its alternatives →
- 8

Premium membership for ambitious software engineers
2022 · jointaro.com · its alternatives →
- 9
Levels.fyi▲105Compare career levels across software eng and other fields
2017 · levels.fyi · its alternatives →
- 10EC
"Excited to launch CareerGPT.ai on Hacker news today! We're on a mission to help people ..yada...yada" No, that's ChatGPT's writing, not mine :) Folks, I was a PhD student once, in a non-home country, and just wished to know what was it like to go and work in the industry, being a programmer, or started a company. Torn apart between choices, I just wished there was a totally unbiased counselor to talk to. I couldn't do that with my supervisor since he always encouraged me to finish the thesis (of course). Heck, had ChatGPT exist back then, I would have had more infos and made decision…
2023 · careergpt.ai · its alternatives →
- 11

- 12

Land your dream job in tech with 1:1 coaching and bootcamps
2021 · aslanconcrete.com · its alternatives →
- 13
JobPulse▲107A place to find the latest entry-level jobs in tech
2023 · jobpulse.fyi · its alternatives →
- 14

Hey HN, i made this app to improve tech hiring via personal recommendations let me know what you think!
2024 · youshouldworkwith.com · its alternatives →
- 15
Ladder▲134Community-first career growth for the next generation.
2020 · joinnova.co · its alternatives →
- 16

- 17AI
We are a recruiting startup with a small twist. We represent engineering candidates who receive a recommendation through our personalized vetting process, which includes a technical interview with an unbiased third-party senior engineer. We match the candidates with interviewers based on their background and the roles they are looking for. We pay for the senior engineer's time to interview so that the feedback is completely unbiased. These interviews are unique in that they are not set up to test if a candidate is a fit for a pre-set role, but instead they are personalized to extract each…
2017 · its alternatives →
- 18

Open-source skills system that wires your business into AI
Feb 2026 · baselinestudio.design · its alternatives →
- 19

Let AI recommend the best candidates, purely based on merit
2018 · vervoe.com · its alternatives →
- 20
Jobkitten▲103Hiring? Track, rate, comment applicants for free.
2017 · jobkitten.com · its alternatives →
- 21HS
Hi HN! We’re excited to share with you the public beta launch of our startup, HiDimensional (www.hidimensional.com). We are a platform consisting of senior engineering leaders who interview candidates and provide recommendations of the best candidates and their strengths. We then use the recommendations to refer these candidates to founders of startups that match their strengths and interests. The recommendation serves as a personal referral from the interviewer, so for candidates, it amplifies their application and fast-tracks them through the process. And for companies, they are receiving…
2017 · its alternatives →
- 22

- 23

- 24

Also compare
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →