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Help/FAQs: Scoring & Matching

How soon will I see candidate recommendations after adding a job?

Immediately.  Just click the See Recommendations button and you’ll see matching candidates right after you add the job.

How does JobScore match candidates to my jobs?

We match candidates based on your scoring criteria and the candidate’s job preferences

  • We initially populate your scoring criteria by scanning your job description. If you don’t think your candidate scores are accurate, try tuning these scoring criteria for the job (see below for more information on how to use scoring criteria)
  • Candidates either enter their own job preferences, or we guess them based on the kinds of jobs they've applied for in the past.

What are Scoring Criteria? How do I use them?

Scoring criteria are what JobScore uses to calculate the 1-10 scores you see in your account. Different scoring criteria are set for each job in your account, and you can add as many scoring criteria as you like for each job - as well as set the importance of each one.  There are several different types of scoring criteria:

Criteria Types:

Keyword Criteria:

Keywords are the most flexible way to tune your match score. Words or phrases entered in a keyword criteria box are searched for against the full text of candidate resumes. Use keywords to score applicants based on skills, accomplishments, and qualifications.

Education Criteria:

Desired Degree: This is the desired educational level for a job. You can only enter one desired degree level per job. This is because we use fuzzy matching to generate a score based on whether they have exactly the degree you asked for or something close. Just pick your ideal degree and we'll do the rest.

School Name: If you prefer candidates that have attended particular schools or universities, enter one or more school name criteria. These criteria work better if you just put in the school's unique name (i.e. enter "Stanford" not "Stanford University"). Feel free to add as many school names as you want.

Major: Likewise, if you prefer candidates that have studied a particular subject you can enter one or more major criteria. These criteria work well with either specific criteria like "computer science" or more general criteria like "computer" which will capture different varieties of computer degrees. For some jobs more than one area of study would work - for instance you might want someone with a degree in finance or accounting... in this case you should enter two separate major criteria - one for finance, one for accounting.

Employment Criteria:

Career Level: This is the general level of experience desired for a job. Like Desired Degree, you can only enter one career level per job. This is because we use fuzzy matching to generate a score based on whether they are at exactly the career level you asked for or something close. Just pick your ideal career level and we'll do the rest.

Company Name: If you prefer candidates that have worked for specific companies, enter one or more company name criteria. While you could also enter companies as Keyword Criteria, the scoring will be more accurate if you use this option, as it will avoid mismatches of context. i.e. it is very different to have worked for a company than to have sold to that company, or used their products. For instance, it's different to have the keyword "Microsoft" on your resume than to have worked for the Microsoft, the company. Feel free to add as many companies as you want.

Job Title: If you prefer people that have held a particular job titles, enter Job Title criteria. For some jobs more than one job title might be appropriate - for instance you might want someone who has been an accountant or who has been a controller... in this case you should enter two separate criteria - one for "accountant", one for "controller." While you could enter job titles as Keyword criteria, the scoring will be more accurate if you use the Job Title criteria, as this special field will avoid mismatches of context - i.e. if someone has reported to a Vice President doesn't mean they've been a Vice President.

Location Criteria:

Location scores are based on how close the candidate lives to your office, and are calculated using the zip code of the location you assigned to the job and the zip code of the candidate's home address. We use fuzzy matching to generate a score based on whether they are within (or near) your preferred commute distance. If you don't care where the candidate lives, please delete the location criteria. You can only have one location per job. If you need to hire someone in more than one location, we recommend either adding a separate job with a different location to your account or just deleting the location criteria entirely.

Term types:

Drop-down lists: Terms that show a drop down list are used for fuzzy matches - you can only select one of these criteria, so please choose the most appropriate value from the list and set its importance... we'll do the rest.

Text boxes: Terms that show a text box use keyword text matching. We take the word or phrase that you type in and match it against candidates to determine a match. You can enter as many text box terms as you want. JobScore works better if you separate different words and phrases into separate criteria and assign each its own importance value.

Importance:

The importance bar determines how much weight we will put on a given criteria when calculating the overall score. If you click 1 bar for a criterion, it won't impact the score nearly as much as if you click 5 bars.

However, these are relative weights. So if you assign all of your criteria 1 bar it will produce the same result as assigning all of your criteria 5 bars. For every job some criteria are more important than others, so please assign the appropriate number of bars. For every job there are requirements and nice to haves, so make sure to tune your criteria appropriately.

Can I change my scoring criteria?

Yes. Candidate scores are determined based on the criteria you have associated with each job... there is no "magic" here at JobScore. When you add a new job to your JobScore account, we look at the job description and pre-populate some scoring criteria. You can adjust and tune these criteria as much as you like. Here are the basics:

  • To add criteria, click on the add criterion button at the bottom of the scoring criteria table and enter an appropriate value in the term field.
  • To remove criteria, click the delete icon at the end of each row.
  • Select the importance of each criterion using the green importance bar.
  • Your changes are saved and candidates are re-scored after you click the update button at the bottom of the page.

What's the difference between an account candidate and a network candidate?

In the filter on the recommended candidates page you can choose to see account candidates, network candidates or both.

  • Account candidates are people that are already in your account that are not assigned to the selected job. Filtering by account candidates is a good way to discover people that you've seen before that could be a good prospect for an open job.
  • Network candidates are people who are in the JobScore Network that you haven't contacted yet. You'll need to spend credits to contact network candidates.

What are score details? How do they work?

Score details show exactly why a candidate received a specific score. Score details show both how well the candidate matches what you are looking for (my criteria) as well as how your job matches what the candidate is looking for (candidate interest). All of the values under "my criteria" can be changed by editing the scoring criteria for the associated job.

How much does it cost to contact a recommended candidate?

It costs 1 credit to contact each recommended network candidate. You can earn credits by sharing resumes or referring other employers who sign up for the JobScore SHARE plan. If you don't want to earn credits, you can just buy them... credit prices are listed here.

 

If you can't find what you are looking for here, please feel free to e-mail us at support@jobscore.com or drop us a call at 415-904-9900. Please post suggestions for additional help topics in the JobScore Forums.