How Vector Space Matching Technology is One-Upping the ATS

2017 is going to be a very busy year for recruiters. Fifty-six percent of companies indicate that their hiring volumes will increase this year, but only 35 percent of businesses anticipate adding recruiting staff to manage the extra workload. That means efficiency is going to be more important than ever to recruiters and hiring managers who will need to fill more vacant positions than ever in a 40-hour workweek.

And that’s exactly why MightyRecuiter has rolled out its new vector space matching feature, which uses machine learning and vector space matching algorithms to make the laborious process of sifting through job applications quicker and easier than ever. The technology identifies your most relevant and best-fit candidates in seconds and presents these first, so you don’t have to waste time considering the irrelevant ones.

We sat down with MightyRecruiter Product Lead Ann Barzman recently to learn more about this new and improved recruiting automation feature. Read on to find out how this new technology is one-upping standard ATSs and quickly becoming a game-changer for time-pressed recruiters.

What is ‘vector space matching technology’? Can you explain what it does?

In a nutshell, this feature automatically sorts candidates based on their relevance to a job description. It analyzes applicants’ resumes for clusters of words or phrases from which it can draw key inferences, like how many years of experience a candidate may have or how proficient a candidate may be with certain software. The technology will do this for every piece of information in a resume – and then draw a conclusion about how well it matches the job description requirements, narrowing down the candidate pool as it goes.

Not to mention, the feature utilizes machine learning algorithms, natural language processing, and deep learning algorithms so it becomes better and smarter the more you use it. As of now, it’s already learned from the 19+ million resumes in our database, so it’s already pretty clever.

How is this different from a standard Applicant Tracking System (ATS)?

A standard ATS works by matching keywords in a job description to those in a resume. The more often there is a match, the higher it ranks the resume. For instance, if a company puts out a job posting for a Systems Engineer, whose main responsibility is to manage corporate server infrastructure, and an applicant’s resume mentions the word ‘server’ four times, it will likely be presented as a good fit candidate to the recruiter.

This kind of technology will never be able to trump vector space matching because it isn’t able to make inferences about the applicant the way humans do when they review a resume. Our technology does. For example, an ATS may present a recruiter looking to hire a Systems Engineer with resumes of Restaurant Servers simply because of the mention of the word “server.” Our vector space matching, on the other hand, is able to draw certain conclusions about the resume of the Restaurant Server as a whole and, based on those inferences, will drop it to the bottom of the applicant pool as a bad fit.

Furthermore, if 50 resumes each mention the word ‘Systems Engineer’ the same number of times, using an ATS, you’re still stuck with 50 resumes to review. Our technology will tell you which of those 50 resumes are the best.

Is the technology easy to use?

It’s built-in to MightyRecruiter so recruiters and hiring managers who already use the product won’t have to add any extra steps to their search to take advantage of the technology’s benefits (you can try the product for free, here).

How does this help a recruiter or hiring manager save time?

Some studies estimate that 75 percent applicants aren’t qualified for the role they apply for, which creates a lot of extra work for recruiters who want to do their due diligence. MightyRecruiter’s vector space matching algorithm saves time by bringing the most relevant applicants to the top of the list so that recruiters and hiring leaders aren’t forced to sift through the pile of unsuitable applicants. Rather than viewing applicants according to submission date, the technology sorts applicants according to their suitability.

Do employers have the option to see the resumes of all applicants, or will they only see the ones the system considers most relevant?

This feature makes the most relevant resumes the most visible to employers, with the less viable applicants falling to the bottom of the list.

How much does it cost to use MightyRecruiter’s vector space matching technology?

There is no additional charge. It’s part of MightyRecruiter’s recruiting solution and is enabled by default when you register to use MightyRecruiter.

Is there anything else that’s important to know about the vector space matching technology?

As we have heard time and again, the quality of your job description directly correlates to successful hiring, and that’s certainly true with vector space matching technology. The more detail you put into a job description, the more the technology has to work with. The more specific the job description is, the better the chances that we will be able to deliver a candidate that matches your exact needs. (For more, read our eBook on ‘Writing Winning Job Descriptions’.) Write your job description as if you were describing your perfect candidate. If you can accomplish that, MightyRecruiter can likely deliver you a perfect – or close to perfect – candidate.

Quickly and easily filter out unqualified candidates and find that perfect candidate by giving MightyRecruiter a try! Click here for a free 7-day trial subscription.