News Letter - Keyword Density

November 2010

Using Keyword Density in Gopher

When trying to match resumes to job orders, these are the basic buzzwords used in the recruitment industry:

• Keyword Density
• Filters
• Relevancy
• Semantic Searching
• Natural Language Processing

Gopher primarily focuses on the use of filters and keywords and their density. Keyword Density is important because it is a quick way to separate hundreds of resumes having only a casual reference to a keyword versus a few resumes with extensive references to an important keyword.  Last month’s newsletter described the use of filters in our matching list. This newsletter will explain the following places in Gopher that can expose the keyword density of a resume.

• Simple resume search by keyword.
• Keyword highlighting button.
• Right click from a job to resume tab.
• Right click from a resume to Position tab.
• Keyword density per Position keywords.
• Keyword density per selected attributes.

Simple resume search by keyword

When performing a simple search from the Resume tab (for example with a single keyword *java*),  Gopher will find all the resumes with the word or phrase and the density count will show at the bottom of the Gopher screen (like the picture above).  But there are some tricks built into Gopher to expand this simple keyword search. You can perform a 'whole word' only search by entering your word or phrase with spaces around them like * java *.  This can be a big deal if the keyword happens to much a common string in many other words.  For example, searching for *red* without the surrounding spaces can give you results you don't want like Redding, redder, redraw, redemption, etc. When looking for keywords, most Boolean operators can also be used like "^" which is an "or".

You can combine the search of profiles to include words on resumes that may not be listed on profiles using or .  These two options display in the right box keyword area on a profile query.  Double clicking the box toggles the between "AND" and "OR".

Keyword highlighting button

If you are on the Resume tab of Gopher and there is a resume in view, clicking this button will show the count (density) of all the words in this resume that match the keywords listed on this person's profile or the associated synonyms from your keyword dictionary. The words will also be highlighted with a different color for each unique keyword.

Right click from a position to resume tab

Oh no, not more right clicks! Yes, but they do save time once you learn what they can do for you

If you have a job selected on the Position tab and you right click the Resume tab, Gopher will find ALL the resumes that are a 100% match to the resume keywords matching the required skills on the Position tab

Right click from a resume to position tab

If you have a resume selected on the Resume tab and you right click the Position tab you will find all the positions where this persons resume matches to 100% of all the required skills listed on the Position tab.

Keyword density per position keywords

Yes! There is such a column on the Matches screen which we covered in the last newsletter. To have this column display, after you have run a search and gotten your results on the Matches screen, click "View" menu and select "Keyword density per required job skills". Once the column is displayed you can click the column header to sort your results from high to low to determine who ranks the highest in keyword density. However Gopher is not finished. You can click on a density number on any row and keep the mouse held down and drag it to the Resume tab. Drop it and voila! This person’s resume shows up giving you the keyword count and highlighting the keywords.

Keyword density per selected attributes

What is the difference from the above and what good is it?  The difference is the 'Required skills uses "All" the required skills listed.  However if you select "attributes required skills" you can pick only the required skills you want to look for without changing the job order. This feature will help expanding your search by including the more critical skills but not all of your job order requirements.  On the Matches screen, once required attributes are selected and your search is run, clicking on the "View" menu and "Keyword density per attribute required skills" you will see this column in your results. The column has the same sorting and drag and drop features as the "Job required skills".