Product Announcement: Student Job Search Filters

Brit

• April 13, 2018 22:13

Repost from "Jobs Best Practices & Assisting Employers"

Handshake Community -

Thank you for all of your thoughtful feedback about the new job search experiments that we launched recently. We wanted to take some time to provide more context and address your feedback with next steps.

Over the past 6 months, our product teams have been launching new features, backed by data from experiments, to improve the job search experience for students - these experiments have yielded over 10% more applications weekly in aggregate. Most recently, we’ve experimented with the job search page and filters.

Why? In our regular user research sessions with students, we consistently heard a common theme: the job search experience - the actual use of search filters, keyword search, etc. -  could be much simpler, easier to use and more intuitive.

Here are some of the quotes from students.

• “Hard to use, filters are difficult to set, doesn't fit needs”

• “Needs a better user interface, especially when choosing filters”

• “One thing I'd like for Handshake to improve in would be the structure of selecting filters for the job search.”

• “The filters aren't very good when you search and it's really not easy to find jobs that are good for me without sifting through a lot of information.”

So we aimed to simplify this experience, to make it easier for students to find the most helpful job filters without overwhelming them with too much choice. This is a key design paradigm used across sites from job search to travel search and beyond - show the most helpful and widely used features, and then group other low-volume filters in an “advanced” filter area.

To figure out which filters to prioritize, we:

1. Analyzed which search filters were best at helping students find jobs by looking at the data. How often are certain filters used? Which filters are most helpful in driving students to apply to jobs?
2. Experimented with reducing certain filters which were less effective and/or not used.
3. Regrouped and restructured remaining filters into more intuitive categories, based on data and user feedback.

As a concrete example, we found that the job type filter (full-time/part-time/on-campus), had been used in over 50% of successful searches, or those leading to application. To help more students successfully search for jobs, we decided to promote this filter to its current featured location below the keyword box.

On the job search page we also introduced Suggested Keyword Searches that are derived from each student's major, as well as from the inventory of jobs. We found that searches generated using suggested keywords led to applications at twice the rate of other searches.

Importantly, results have shown a 2-3% lift in applicants indicating that this new design results in more students applying to jobs.

That said, we have heard your feedback, particularly about filters for job function, major and employer preferences (major, school year, etc.) and want to share an update given our data-driven learnings around this experiment.

The job function and major filters are a good example of how our product experimentation works. Our original data analysis showed that very few students used either of these filters to find jobs. In the spirit of simplifying, we experimented with excluding these as an option. However, the data and feedback from that experiment has shown that, while few students used these filters, those who did were much more likely to apply to a job, meaning that each filter provided very strong signal. Over the next two weeks, we will be re-adding job function and major filtering back to the job search UI.

Regarding employer preferences filters, our goal is to provide students the ability to quickly filter jobs that meet employer preferences which comprise multiple fields (major, GPA, work auth, school year). Over the next few weeks, students will also be able to filter on each individual preference, should they choose to.

Thank you for your continued feedback. We appreciate your partnership in thinking through innovative ways to better help students find jobs on Handshake!

- Handshake Team

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  Jenn Ryan-Jauregui

  • June 14, 2018 22:29

  Hi Brit,

  Is Handshake going to be adding the filter for jobs that are 'Work Authorization Optional' back into the Student product?  This filter is used quite a bit by our International students, and our Masters in Management Information Systems students in particular. Adding this filter back in would be helpful to both international students and to employers. Students would only be applying to positions where there is OPT/CPT sponsorship available, and Employers would hopefully field/manage less applications from candidates who do not meet their work authorization preferences. 

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  David Slotnick

  • June 15, 2018 14:04
  • Edited

  I second Jenn's request! For any school using Handshake that has even a small international population, this filter is critical, as is one specifying OPT/CPT eligibility. Since employers are inputting this info when submitting jobs, it's certainly a low-hanging fruit to add it to the student search filters.

  Furthermore, we've advocated this before, but it would be nice to tweak the language, as well, since it's incredibly confusing. "Work Authorization Optional" is a check-box asking students to confirm a negative. Essentially, the box says "Yes, I only want to see jobs where authorization is NOT required." The default, where the filter is not checked, logically implies that all the jobs then appearing are where work authorization is not optional (and thus required). I don't think this is the intent.

  This is needlessly confusing for English-speakers, let along international students for whom English is likely not their native language. Again, this is a low-hanging fruit in terms of just changing the text of the prompt.

  Please!

  Thanks,

  David
  
  

  David Slotnick | Senior Associate Director, Research & Technology | Columbia University Center for Career Education
  www.careereducation.columbia.edu | T 212 851 0299 | F 212 854 1539 | ds3004@columbia.edu

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  Brit

  • June 18, 2018 18:58

  Hi All,

  Just wanted to respond to Jenn and David's posts!

  • We made an update to student job search a few months ago that now allows students to opt into filtering by a variety of fields on their accounts.  One of those fields is work authorization status.  If you are authorized to work in the US, you can filter for opportunities where work authorization is required.  If you are not authorized to work in the US, you can filter for opportunities where work authorization is not required.  Check out the screenshot below - this new filter should hopefully make more clear what you're going to get in your search results...

  

  • An OPT/CPT filter is good product feedback - I would submit a ticket voicing your Support.  I'll let our Student Product Team know too!

  Best,
  Brit

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  Jenn Ryan-Jauregui

  • June 19, 2018 16:38

  Thanks for this suggestion Brit, and for considering adding the OPT/CPT eligible filters back in. I did some more sleuthing and testing on my own from the student side, and I discovered that students with the following Work Authorization Statuses still do have the Work Authorization Optional Filter available in the advanced filters:

  Employment (H-1) Visa

  J-1 Visa (Exchange Program)

  Student (F-1) Visa

  Work Card

  Students with other Work Authorization statuses, including US Citizen and Permanent resident would not have the filter, which makes total sense. 

   

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