This seems weird to me. I hear it all the time, but I don't understand. It's a few hours, even as much as a day of effort - to make a huge jump that might be worth hundreds of thousands of Dollars, or perhaps have other major lifestyle improvements. And "if I can get a similarly..." - sure, but is it not worth a few hours up front to find the best job for you? I would happily to 4 hours of work to get a 1% better job.

Of course, if it's STEP 1, and you're faced with many iterations of this, that's a different story. But if I'm somewhat certain that I'm looking at a great offer from a great company at some point, why not spend the 4 hours?