When companies are looking to hire a new employee for a job, they need to advertise the new job so that job candidates become aware of the new job opportunity and apply for the job. Companies typically advertize the new job by encouraging their employees and third parties (e.g., recruiters) to tell people they know to apply for the job. However, this ad hoc approach is traditionally inefficient—both in terms of identifying good job candidates and reaching individuals that are good job candidates.
In general, in one aspect, the invention relates to a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a process perform a method, the method comprising determining a plurality of new job characteristics for a new job using a job record corresponding to the new job, identifying an old job using the plurality of new job characteristics and a plurality of old job characteristics, wherein the old job characteristics are obtained from a job record corresponding to the old job, wherein the old job is similar to the new job and wherein a similarity between the old job and the new job is quantified using a job similarity factor, selecting a job candidate, wherein the job candidate has applied for the old job, determining a candidate matching factor for the job candidate based on the old job, determining a rating for the job candidate using the job similarity factor and the candidate matching factor for the job candidate, and identifying the job candidate to contact about the job based on the rating.
In general, in one aspect, the invention relates to a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a process perform a method, the method comprising determining a plurality of new job characteristics for a new job using a job record corresponding to the new job, selecting an employee of a company, wherein the new job is at the company, selecting a social network to which the employee belongs, identifying a job candidate, wherein the job candidate is a connected to the employee in the social network, determining a candidate similarity factor for the job candidate using the plurality of new job characteristics and a profile of the job candidate obtained from the social network, wherein the candidate similarity factor for the job candidate quantifies similarity between the profile and the plurality of new job characteristics, and sending a message to the employee based on the candidate similarity factor of the job candidate, wherein the message requests the employee to refer the new job to the job candidate.
In general, in one aspect, the invention relates to a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a process perform a method, the method comprising determining a plurality of new job characteristics for a new job using a job record corresponding to the new job, identifying an old job using the plurality of new job characteristics and a plurality of old job characteristics, wherein the old job characteristics are obtained from a job record corresponding to the old job, wherein the old job is similar to the new job and wherein a similarity between the old job and the new job is quantified using a job similarity factor, selecting a recruiter, wherein the recruiter was hired to locate job candidates for the old job, determining a recruiter success factor based on the old job, determining a rating for the recruiter using the job similarity factor and the recruiter success factor for the recruiter, and determining whether to hire the recruiter to locate job candidates for the new job based on the rating.
In general, in one aspect, the invention relates to a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a process perform a method, the method comprising determining a plurality of new job characteristics for a new job using a job record corresponding to the new job, identifying an old job using the plurality of new job characteristics and a plurality of old job characteristics, wherein the old job characteristics are obtained from a job record corresponding to the old job, wherein the old job is similar to the new job and wherein a similarity between the old job and the new job is quantified using a job similarity factor, determining a plurality of social networks over which a message for the old job was communicated to potential job candidates, wherein the message is one selected form a group consisting of a job message and a broadcast job message, determining a social network conversion rate for each of the plurality of social networks to obtain a plurality of social network conversion rates, determining a rating for each of the plurality of social networks using the job similarity factor and the plurality of social network conversion rates to obtain a plurality of ratings, and selecting at least one of the plurality of social networks over which to communicate a job message for the new job based on the plurality of ratings.
Other aspects of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the appended claims.
Specific embodiments of the invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying figures. Like elements in the various figures are denoted by like reference numerals for consistency.
In the following detailed description of embodiments of the invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily complicating the description.
In general, embodiments of the invention relate to identifying job candidates or referral entities for a new job. Embodiments of the invention may also be used to identify social networks through which job candidates may be contacted. Embodiments of the invention may identify job candidates, referral entities, or social networks using job similarity factors, candidate matching factors, candidate similarity factors, social network conversion rates, and/or recruiter success factors.
In one embodiment of the invention, jobs are communicated to job candidates and/or referral entities via job messages or broadcast job messages. In one embodiment of the invention, each job message specifies a job and is associated with a sender, a recipient, and a communication channel (described in
In one embodiment of the invention, a referral entity is any user that receives a job message or broadcast job message for a job and then forwards the job (via a job message or broadcast job message) to another user. The user that receives a job message or broadcast job message from a referral entity may be a job candidate, a referral entity, or both. Examples of referral entities may include, but are not limited to, recruiters hired by the company offering the job, employees of the company offering the job, individuals in a user's social network (i.e., the social network of the individual who is creating the original job message/broadcast job message or the social network of the individual who has received a job message/broadcast job message for a job and is forwarding), or any other individual that creates a job message/broadcast job message.
In one embodiment of the invention, each client (100) corresponds to a remote system configured to interface with the service front-end (102). The client may be a mobile device (e.g., smart phone tablet computer, laptop, etc.) or any non-mobile computer device (e.g., desktop, etc.) with functionality to interface with the service front-end (102). Such functionality may include, but is not limited to, a web browser or standalone application along with hardware and/or software necessary to communicate with the service front-end.
In one embodiment of the invention, the service front-end (102) includes functionality to interface with the clients (100) and the matching service (104) (described below). In one embodiment of the invention, the service front-end is implemented as a web-server configured to serve web pages to the client and to receive input from the client via the client's web browser and/or a standalone application on the client. In one embodiment of the invention, if the client is executing a web browser to interface with the service front-end, then the service front-end includes the web pages to send to the client(s). Upon receipt of input from the client, the service front-end is configured to extract and, if necessary, modify the input, prior to sending the input to the matching service (104) (described below). Similarly, upon receipt of data from the matching service (104), the service front-end is configured to perform the required formatting of such data, prior to sending the formatted data to the client(s). In one embodiment of the invention, the service front-end may interact with multiple clients simultaneously.
In one embodiment of the invention, the matching service (104) is configured identify job candidates (122), referral entities (124), and/or social networks (not shown) that match a particular job using one or more methods shown in
In one embodiment of the invention, a communication channel (120A, 120N) refers to any service and/or social network that supports the communication of job messages and/or broadcast job messages to job candidates (122) or referral entities (124). Examples of services include, but are not limited to, electronic mail (e-mail), short message service (SMS), TWITTER, Craigslist, and blogs. Examples of social networks include, but are not limited to, FACEBOOK, LINKEDIN, and MYSPACE. In one embodiment of the invention, communication channels used to communicate job messages may be referred to as direct communication channels. Examples of direct communication channels may include, but are not limited to, e-mail, LINKEDIN InMail, TWITTER messages (also referred to as direct messages), and SMS. In one embodiment of the invention, communication channels that are used to communicate broadcast job messages may be referred to as broadcast communication channels. Examples of broadcast communication channels may include, but are not limited to, a blog, CRAIGSLIST, a FACEBOOK status update, a LINKEDIN update, a TWITTER status update, a FACEBOOK wall post, and a LINKEDIN group post. TWITTER is a registered trademark of Twitter, Inc. of California, U.S.A. FACEBOOK is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc. of California, U.S.A. MYSPACE is a registered trademark of MySpace, Inc. of California, U.S.A. LINKEDIN is a registered trademark of LinkedIn, Inc. of California, U.S.A. CRAIGSLIST is a registered trademark of Craigslist, Inc. of California, U.S.A.
In one embodiment of the invention, the application database (112) includes application records (212). The content of the application records is described below in
In one embodiment of the invention, the analytics engine (118) includes functionality to analyze the records in the application database (112), the job database (114), and/or user database (116) to determine, for example, the effectiveness of the various communication channels used to communicate with job candidates (122) and/or the effectiveness of various referral entities (124). In one embodiment of the invention, an analytics database (110) is configured to store the results of generated by the analytics engine.
In one embodiment of the invention, the analytics database (110), the application database (112), the job database (114), and the user database (116) may be implemented using any persistent data storage device and/or technology including, but not limited to, magnetic storage, and solid state storage. Further, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention is not limited to the implementation shown in
In one embodiment of the invention, the rating (334) specifies one or more of the following: (i) not rated; (ii) not qualified; (iii) under qualified; (iv) maybe; (v) good; (vi) preferred; (vii) over qualified; or (viii) not interested. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other rating schemes may be used and that the invention is not limited to the aforementioned rating scheme.
In one embodiment of the invention, the stage (336) may specify one or more of the following: (i) applied and not interviewed, (ii) phone interview and no match, (iii) in-person interview and no match, (iv) offer declined, and (v) hired. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other schemes may be used to describe the various job application stages and that the invention is not limited to the aforementioned scheme.
In Step 304, a job similarity factor for each old job in the jobs database is determined using the characteristics of the new job obtained in step 302. In one embodiment of the invention, an old job is a job that (i) has a corresponding job record in the jobs database and (ii) the job record for the old job is present in the jobs database at the time Step 304 is performed. In one embodiment of the invention, the job similarity factor quantifies the similarity between an old job and the new job. The job similarity factor may be numeric value between 0 and 1, where the larger the value the more similar the old job is to the new job.
In one embodiment of the invention, the job similarity factor is determined by (i) quantifying the similarity between characteristics in the new job with characteristics in the old job to obtain job characteristic similarity values; (ii) applying a weighting factor to each of the job characteristic similarity values to obtain weighted job characteristic similarity values; and (iii) summing the weighted job characteristic similarity values to obtain a job similarity value.
In one embodiment of the invention, job characteristics that are compared may include, but are not limited to, title, skills, education, and location. Further, the job characteristic similarity values may be numeric values between 0 and 1, where the larger the value the more similar the old job characteristics is to the corresponding new job characteristic. In one embodiment of the invention, the title is associated with the highest weighting factor. In one embodiment of the invention, the weighting factors sum to 1. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other weighting factor schemes may be used without departing from the invention.
In one embodiment of the invention, job characteristics similarity values may be determined, for example, using known semantic similarity and/or semantic relatedness techniques. For example, the job characteristics similarity values may be determined using WordNet::Similarity, or any other computational mechanism for determining semantic similarity between words and/or phrases.
Returning to
In Step 308, an old job from the old jobs identified in Step 306 is selected. In Step 310, a job candidate that applied for the old job is identified. In one embodiment of the invention, the job candidate may be identified using the application records in the applications database. In one embodiment of the invention, the job candidate may be a current employee of the company who was hired for the old job.
Continuing with
In Step 314, a determination is made about whether there are additional job candidates. If there are additional job candidates, the process proceeds to Step 310; otherwise the process proceeds to Step 316. In Step 316, a determination is made about whether there are additional old jobs (i.e., old jobs identified in Step 306) to process. If there are additional old jobs to process, the process proceeds to Step 308; otherwise the process proceeds to Step 318. In Step 318, a job similarity rating is determined for each job candidate (i.e., candidates identified in Step 310) using the job similarity factor and the candidate matching factor. In one embodiment of the invention, the job similarity rating is obtained by multiplying the job similarity factor with the candidate matching factor to a numeric value between 0 and 10. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other schemes for determining the job similarity rating may be used without departing from the invention.
In Step 320, one or more job candidates to contact about the new job are selected based on the job similarity ratings determined in Step 318. In one embodiment of the invention, only job candidates with a job similarity rating that is above a threshold job similarity rating are selected. In one embodiment of the invention, the threshold job similarity rating is 5. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other threshold job similarity ratings may be used without departing from the invention.
In one embodiment of the invention, the job candidates are contacted using job messages or broadcast job messages. In one embodiment of the invention, the job candidates are contacted using job messages or broadcast job messages as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/168,665, which is hereby incorporated by referenced in its entirety.
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In step 334, an employee of the company that is offering the job is identified. In one embodiment of the invention, the employee may be any employee in the company. In another embodiment of the invention, the employee may be an employee with a particular job title, in a particular division, at a particular location, or any combination thereof or selected using other criteria.
In step 336, a social network of the employee is selected. In one embodiment of the invention, the social network is listed in the user record corresponding to the employee. In step 338, a contact from the identified social network is selected. In one embodiment of the invention, the information about the employee's username and password for the social network are obtained from the employee or from the user record of the employee. The matching service (or another service) communicates the employee's username and password information to the social network using an application programming interface (API) exposed by the social network. Once the social network authenticates the employee using the employee's username and password, the matching service (or another service) requests the employee's contacts from the social network (for example using an API exposed by the social network). The social network subsequently provides a listing of contacts (or optional profiles of each of the contacts) to the matching service (or related service).
Continuing with
Continuing with
In step 348, job candidates are selected from the contacts processed in Step 340. In one embodiment of the invention, only contacts with a candidate similarity factor above a threshold candidate similarity factor are selected. In one embodiment of the invention, the threshold candidate similarity factor is 0.5. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other threshold candidate similarity factor may be used without departing from the invention.
In Step 350, employees associated (via their social networks) to the job candidates identified in Step 348 are contacted regarding the new job and, in certain embodiments, asked to forward the new job to various contacts within their social network(s). In one embodiment of the invention, the employees are contacted using job messages or broadcast job messages. Further, the employees may use job messages or broadcast job messages to communicate the job to the contacts within their social network(s).
In one embodiment of the invention, an employee may be identified as a referral entity if (i) the employee currently holds or has previously held a job title that is the same or similar (as determined, for example, by semantic similarity and/or semantic relatedness techniques as discussed above) to the title of the new job and/or or (ii) if the employee currently holds or has held a job in the same profession as the new job (e.g., the employee is a computer programmer and the new job is for a Software Architect). If such an employee is identified, the employee is either (i) sent a job message or broadcast job message about the new job or (ii) is sent request to communicate the job via direct and/or indirect communication channels using job messages and/or broadcast job messages.
Turning to
In Step 364, a job similarity factor for each old job in the jobs database is determined using the characteristics of the new job obtained in step 362. In one embodiment of the invention, the job similarity factor is determined in the same manner as described in Step 304 in
In Step 366, all old jobs with a job similarity factor greater than or equal to a threshold job similarity factor are identified. In one embodiment of the invention, the job similarity threshold is used to filter out old jobs that are not similar or not similar enough to the new job. In one embodiment of the invention, the job similarity factor is 0.5. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other job similarity thresholds may be used without departing from the invention.
In Step 368, an old job from the old jobs identified in Step 366 is selected. In Step 370, the social networks used to communicate the old job to potential job candidates are identified. In one embodiment of the invention, the social networks may be identified using the communication channel information included within the job messages and broadcast job messages as well as the source field in the corresponding application records (322 in
In Step 372, a social network from the social networks identified in Step 370 is selected. In step 374, the social network conversion rate is determined. In one embodiment of the invention, the social network conversion rate is the rate at which a given job candidate applies for the old job based on receiving a job message or broadcast job message via the social network. The social network conversion rate may be a numeric value between 0 and 1, where 1 indicates that 100% of the job candidates contacted via the social network applied for the old job. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the social network conversion rate may be based on other metrics such as how far job candidates contacted via a given social network progressed in the job application process.
In one embodiment of the invention, the social network conversion rate for a given social network may be weight based on the quality of job candidates obtained via a given social network. In such embodiments of the invention, the quality of the job candidates is based on the average stage job candidates have progressed within the job applications process. The weighting factor applied to the social network conversion rate may be between 0 and 1. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention is not limited to the weighting factor scheme described above.
Returning to the discussion of
In Step 380, the social network rating for each social network (as identified in Step 372) is determined using the job similarity factor and the social network conversion rate (which may be weighted). In one embodiment of the invention, the social network rating is obtained by multiplying the job similarity factor with the social network conversion factor (or weighted social network conversion factor) to obtain a numeric value between 0 and 1. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other schemes for determining the social network rating may be used without departing from the invention.
In Step 382, one or more social networks to use to communicate broadcast job messages are selected based on the social network ratings determined in Step 380. In one embodiment of the invention, only social networks with a social network rating that is above a threshold social network rating are selected. In one embodiment of the invention, the threshold social network rating is 0.5. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other threshold social network ratings may be used without departing from the invention.
Turning to
In Step 394, a job similarity factor for each old job in the jobs database is determined using the characteristics of the new job obtained in step 392. In one embodiment of the invention, the job similarity factor is determined in the same manner as described in Step 304 in
Returning to
In Step 398, an old job from the old jobs identified in Step 396 is selected. In Step 400, a recruiter is selected from the user database, where the recruiter was either (i) hired to locate job candidates for the old job (as identified in Step 398) and/or (ii) referred a job candidate who applied for the old job.
In Step 402, the recruiter success factor is determined. In one embodiment of the invention, the recruiter success factor quantifies the quality of the job candidates referred by the recruiter and is based on the average stage job candidates have progressed within the job application process. The recruiter success factor may be between 0 and 10.
In another embodiment of the invention, the recruiter success factor may quantify one or more of the following: the number of job candidates the recruiter located for the old job, what sources (e.g., social networks, recruiter's database, etc.) the recruiter used to locate job candidates for the old job, job candidate feedback on the recruiter, hiring manager feedback about the recruiter, and/or overall hiring rate for the recruiter for jobs that are similar to the new job (i.e., what percentage of jobs for which the recruiter was hired did the recruiter find a job candidate who was ultimately hired for the job). Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the recruiter success factor may be a combination of any of the recruiter success factors described herein. Further, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention is not limited to the recruiter success factor described above.
Returning to the discussion of
In Step 408, the recruiter rating for each recruiter (as identified in Step 400) is determined using the job similarity factor, the recruiter success factor, or optionally, recruiter quantitative parameters (e.g., recruiter's fee structure, time to locate job candidates) and/or recruiter qualitative parameters (e.g., responsiveness of recruiter to company, etc.). In one embodiment of the invention, the recruiter rating is obtained by multiplying the job similarity factor with the recruiter success factor to obtain a numeric value between 0 and 10. The recruiter rating may be further modified based on recruiter quantitative parameters and/or recruiter qualitative parameters. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other schemes for determining the recruiter rating may be used without departing from the invention. In Step 410, one or more recruiters are selected based on the recruiter ratings.
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Based on the job similarity values calculated for old jobs 1-3 and a job similarity threshold of 0.5, old jobs 1 and 2 are determined to be similar to the new job. Based on this determination, application records for all job candidates that applied for jobs 1 and 2 are obtained from the application database.
Using the information about the stage reached by each job candidate in the job application process, the candidate matching factor is determined. In one embodiment of the invention, the candidate matching factor is determined as follows:
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Embodiments of the invention may be implemented on virtually any type of computer regardless of the platform being used. For example, as shown in
Further, those skilled in the art will appreciate that one or more elements of the aforementioned computer system (500) may be located at a remote location and connected to the other elements over a network. Further, embodiments of the invention may be implemented on a distributed system having a plurality of nodes, where each portion of the invention (e.g., service front-end, matching service, channel interface engine, job application service, analytics engine, and the various database shown in
While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised which do not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed herein. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by the attached claims.