24
TIL a small algorithm tweak saved me from a huge complaint at work
I work on a team that runs a job matching site, and we had this algorithm that ranks candidates for employers. For months, we kept getting this one client who complained that the top results were all from one demographic group, even though the job was open to everyone. My boss wanted to just add a hard quota system, but I argued for a different approach. Instead of forcing numbers, I tweaked the weight on the similarity score so it didn't over-index on matching the exact same keywords from past hires. We tested it on 200 old job postings last month, and the diversity of the top 5 picks went up by 30% without us lowering quality scores. The client actually called back to say the new batch looked way more fair. Has anyone else gotten pushback when you tried to adjust a ranking instead of just slapping on a diversity filter?
2 comments