Search by example in social networks

One key challenge in talent search is how to translate com- plex criteria of a hiring position into a search query. This typically requires deep knowledge on which skills are typ- ically needed for the position, what are their alternatives, which companies are likely to have such candidates, etc. However, listing examples of suitable candidates for a given position is a relatively easy job. Therefore, in order to help searchers overcome this challenge, we design a next genera- tion of talent search paradigm at LinkedIn: Search by Ideal Candidates. This new system only needs the searcher to in- put one or several examples of suitable candidates for the position. The system will generate a query based on the input candidates and then retrieve and rank results based on the query as well as the input candidates. The query is also shown to the searcher to make the system transparent and to allow the searcher to interact with it. As the searcher modi es the initial query and makes it deviate from the ideal candidates, the search ranking function dynamically adjusts an refreshes the ranking results balancing between the roles of query and ideal candidates.