Meet the iHire Content Team: Your Source for Great Jobs

It’s no secret that iHire is the top source for legitimate, industry-specific job listings. But did you know that we have an entire team of highly trained data pros behind the scenes finding job opportunities for our members?

Kyle Gamble, our Content Data Manager, gave us the inside scoop on what his team does on a day-to-day basis and how they keep our database of job listings fresh, relevant, and ready for you to apply to.

Why does iHire have a Content Team?

The Content Team is responsible for providing highly relevant, qualified, and targeted jobs for our customers on a daily basis. Our Content Data Analysts search thousands of websites every day for our members, and are the first line of defense when it comes to the quality and classification of jobs that are listed on our sites.

We manage various software applications and business logic – including machine learning and natural language processing technologies – to support this important role within the company, though our team is the true driving force behind the quality of the jobs in our system.

Tell us about your role at iHire. What’s a day in the life of Kyle like?

I have the pleasure of managing the Content Team here at iHire. I start my morning with coffee and data, which usually turns into more data as the day goes on. My team has a huddle every morning – except for Wednesdays, our “no meeting day” – where we each update the team on progress, roadblocks, and plans for the day. I really enjoy hearing from each team member every day and having an open discussion that everyone can participate in.

Becoming a data-driven company was a major goal for iHire in the past year, and that has been achieved in the way that each decision we make is carefully considered with our members’ success in mind.

My job is to support the various responsibilities our team has while improving the processes we have in place. On top of that, I'm constantly refreshing reports and data dashboards that provide insight into the health of our systems, specifically the job processing pipeline. Our IT department has done a wonderful job of providing tools that allow me to get lost in data (in a good way). Becoming a data-driven company was a major goal for iHire in the past year, and that has been achieved in the way that each decision we make is carefully considered with our members’ success in mind.

How many steps does it take to add a job to the iHire database?

Once we identify a job listing, it has to go through many steps before it gets into our database and added to our sites for job seekers to view. At a high level, the job first has to pass our quality control standards which require a title, description, and verifiable location. Additionally, there are even more granular requirements such as minimum and maximum length of the job description and how well formatted the job description is.

We want the best experience for our customers, and a large part of that is the quality of the job listings they see on a daily basis. If the job passes our quality check, we then classify the job to see if it fits into any one of our 56 industry-specific communities.

At the end of the day, we accept less than 40% of the jobs we process due to our strict requirements. That means we eliminate thousands of scam/junk jobs, ads, etc. along with the frustration they cause job seekers.

The last major step in the process is to check if we already have the job in our database to make sure our members don’t see the same jobs over and over again. We know this is a major pain point in the job search process, so we run an in-depth duplication check on all of our jobs using very specific measurements for each new job coming into our system. We are constantly refining our duplication process so that our customers receive the best experience.

If the job passes these tests, we insert it into our database, which then makes it available for our users.

At the end of the day, we accept less than 40% of the jobs we process due to our strict requirements. That means we eliminate thousands of scam/junk jobs, ads, etc. along with the frustration they cause job seekers.

How do you make sure a job ends up in the right iHire community?

One word: taxonomy. Taxonomy is what we use to classify job information (in other words, a very intricate evaluation and sorting process).

For every iHire community, there are thousands of phrases that can make up a job title. We have built up a taxonomy database over the years that reliably matches a job’s title to a specific industry community. Not only do we match a job to a particular community, but we also match it to a specific title within that community. Our customers really appreciate this feature because they can pick a title that they're interested in and only receive job matches based on that title. They don't have to waste time digging around jobs that simply aren't relevant to them.

Not only do we match a job to a particular community, but we also match it to a specific title within that community. Our customers really appreciate this feature because they can pick a title that they're interested in and only receive job matches based on that title.

On top of that, we incorporate user-entered data to fuel our taxonomy engine, thus allowing us to keep up with emerging trends in the industry. We highly value our users’ insight, and use it to improve our own processes.

It doesn't stop there. After we match the job to a specific community and title, we score it using iMatch, a machine learning-based algorithm, which determines if the job is a good fit based on our members’ individual job search preferences and onsite behavior.

How do you keep out the ads, scams, and junk jobs?

We have an enormous amount of data that provides us with the ability to filter out ads, job scams, and junk jobs. As part of the quality control process, the job must not contain any blacklisted terms or phrases that we have collected over the years. This includes inappropriate material, untrustworthy sources, companies that falsify job information for the purpose of obtaining user emails, etc.

Though we rely heavily on our software to analyze jobs, we also use customer feedback. Our members have the ability to report a job for various reasons and our team personally responds to each and every submission. All of this data has been filtered through human eyes, so we are very confident in the accuracy of our process. We regularly revisit this area of our system and update it to keep abreast of changes in the industry.

What happens if you find the same job on multiple websites?

We also manage a database of all the possible sources a job can come from, and we analyze each source based on a set of parameters we manually created to determine the priority of one website over another. The most important thing we look at is the apply experience for our customers.

If we find a job on multiple websites, we’ll favor the one we think gives job seekers the most direct and hassle-free way to apply.

In other words, if we find a job on multiple websites, we’ll favor the one we think gives job seekers the most direct and hassle-free way to apply. Very few job boards do this, and it’s one of many benefits that makes iHire unique in how we serve job seekers.

How often does the job database get updated/refreshed?

To say it simply, the job database is being updated 24/7. We are processing jobs day and night, so the system never sleeps.

How many jobs does the Content Team process every day (including duplicates and rejected jobs)?

The team supports software that processes more than 750,000 jobs a day. At the moment, we have more than 2.7 million jobs in our database. One of the solutions we use to make this happen is a unique web data extraction tool from Connotate. Their machine-learning, visual abstraction tool allows us to target sites by setting up agents. Once set up, these agents extract the information we need and inform us of any changes that have occurred. 

How do you make sure the jobs on iHire are active/available?

Great question. We have software services built in house allowing us to check the various sources we get jobs from to verify whether or not the job is still available. Finding expired job listings is another major pain point in an online job search, so we take this very seriously.

When employers post their jobs on iHire directly, we work closely with them as well to make sure the job is still active. In fact, we check each job more than once per day to verify that it's still available.

What makes iHire’s jobs database different/better than other job boards’ databases?

We curate jobs with the interest of our customers in mind. They are our #1 priority. Our goal is to provide the best service possible for our employers AND candidates, as ultimately we are striving to bring both parties together and connect the right job with the right hire. This means being a career platform that prioritizes job quality over job volume.

Our Content Team spends significant time, energy, and brainpower to make sure we are classifying the right job for the right candidate, which at the end of the day, helps our members find their next job as quickly and easily as possible.