Selection rules

What costs nothing

Applying, the assessment itself, the score it produces and the rewritten CV are free, and every candidate who completes the assessment receives all of them whether they pay us anything or not.

What a fee buys

Two reports, each optional and each chosen after the score is already on screen: a personal skills report, which also places a verified profile in the talent pool for 12 months, and a Legal Readiness Report, which reads the candidate’s own answers against the Portuguese consulate checklist.

What no fee buys

The fee does not buy a job, a visa, a placement in Portugal, or any promise of one. It does not place a candidate ahead of anyone else. Paying it does not create any obligation on S&A Recruitment to offer work.

The odds

We do not publish a hire rate. This cohort is the first, so any figure we printed today would be an estimate dressed as a measurement, and a number like that on a page about paying us would be worse than no number at all. We will publish one when we have placed enough people to measure it, with the period and the sectors it covers.

Most people who apply are not placed. Nothing on this site is a promise of work, and the reports are worth buying only if they are worth it to you on their own.

Rounds, and what closing means

Applications never close. Selection runs in rounds, and a round closes: your assessment is ranked against everybody whose application was complete when that round shut, not against a field that keeps moving. Cohort 01 stops accepting applications for its ranking on 30 November 2026, is reviewed until 15 December 2026, and is decided by 15 January 2027. Anybody who finishes after that is in Cohort 02, which opens the next day and closes on 31 January 2027.

How selection is decided

• Ranking by overall assessment score, highest first.
• Interview with the highest-ranked candidates.
• Document and right-to-work checks.
• Offer to the highest-ranked candidate who passes both.

Selection is on merit, not chance. Scores, interview notes and the reason for the final decision are retained and can be requested by any candidate in the cohort.

Employer contact without selection

A profile that is visible can be found by vetted employers, who may invite the candidate to interview independently of the cohort placement. A candidate can hide their profile at any time from their dashboard.