Determining similarities among industries to enhance job searching

1. A method comprising:

accessing, by a social networking server having one or more processors, a plurality of job applications, each job application being submitted by a member for a job in a company, the member having a member industry from a plurality of industries and the job having a job industry from the plurality of industries;

performing, by the social networking server, semantic analysis of the job applications by a machine-learning program to identify similarity coefficients among the plurality of industries, the semantic analysis involving analyzing pairings of member industry to job industry in the job applications;

receiving, by the social networking server, a job search query from a first member, the job search query including a query industry from the plurality of industries;

expanding, by the social networking server, the job search query with industries that are similar to the query industry;

executing, by the social networking server, the expanded job search query to generate a plurality of job results; and

causing presentation on a display of one or more of top job results.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein expanding the job search query further comprises:

determining industries with a similarity coefficient to the query industry greater than a predetermined threshold.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 , wherein expanding the job search query further comprises:

adding the determined industries to the job search query to obtain the expanded job search query.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the similarity coefficient between a first industry and a second industry is a real number that quantifies a similarity between the first industry and the second industry.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:

parsing, by the social networking server, the search query to identify a plurality of words; and

detecting that one or more words from the plurality of words are associated with the query industry.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the job industry corresponds to an industry of the company posting the job.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the expanded job search query is executed by a machine-learning algorithm trained with identified features that included the job industry and the member industry.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:

scoring each job result from the plurality of job results after executing the expanded job search query; and

sorting the plurality of job results based on the scoring.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying job recommendations for a second member without receiving a job search query, the identifying job recommendations comprising:

accessing profile data of the second member, the profile data including a second member industry;

identifying industries that are similar to the second member industry;

executing, by the social networking server, a job search based on the profile data of the second member and the identified industries that are similar to the second member industry; and

causing presentation on a display of one or more of results from the job search.

10. A social networking server comprising:

a memory with instructions;

a member database storing member information that comprises a member industry from a plurality of industries;

a jobs database storing a plurality of job applications, each job application being submitted by a member for a job in a company, the job having a job industry from the plurality of industries; and

one or more computer processors, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more computer processors, cause the one or more computer processors to perform operations comprising:

accessing the plurality of job applications;

performing semantic analysis of the job applications by a machine-learning program to identify similarity coefficients among the plurality of industries, the semantic analysis involving analyzing pairings of member industry to job industry in the job applications;

receiving a job search query from a first member, the job search query including a query industry from the plurality of industries;

expanding the job search query with industries that are similar to the query industry;

executing the expanded job search query to generate a plurality of job results; and

causing presentation on a display of one or more of top job results.

11. The social networking server as recited in claim 10 , wherein expanding the job search query further comprises:

determining industries with a similarity coefficient to the query industry greater than a predetermined threshold; and

adding the determined industries to the job search query to obtain the expanded job search query.

12. The social networking server as recited in claim 10 , wherein the instructions further cause the one or more computer processors to perform operations comprising:

parsing, by the social networking server, the search query to identify a plurality of words; and

detecting that one or more words from the plurality of words are associated with the query industry.

13. The social networking server as recited in claim 10 , wherein the instructions further cause the one or more computer processors to perform operations comprising identifying job recommendations for a second member without receiving a job search query, the identifying job recommendations comprising:

accessing profile data of the second member, the profile data including a second member industry;

identifying industries that are similar to the second member industry;

execute, by the social networking server, a job search based on the profile data of the second member and the identified industries that are similar to the second member industry; and

causing presentation on a display of one or more of results from the job search.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

accessing, by a social networking server having one or more processors, a plurality of job applications, each job application being submitted by a member for a job in a company, the member having a member industry from a plurality of industries and the job having a job industry from the plurality of industries;

performing, by the social networking server, semantic analysis of the job applications by a machine-learning program to identify similarity coefficients among the plurality of industries, the semantic analysis involving analyzing pairings of member industry to job industry in the job applications;

receiving, by the social networking server, a job search query from a first member, the job search query including a query industry from the plurality of industries;

expanding, by the social networking server, the job search query with industries that are similar to the query industry;

executing, by the social networking server, the expanded job search query to generate a plurality of job results; and

causing presentation on a display of one or more of top job results.

15. The machine-readable storage medium as recited in claim 14 , wherein the machine further performs operations comprising identifying job recommendations for a second member without receiving a job search query, the identifying job recommendations comprising:

accessing profile data of the second member, the profile data including a second member industry;

identifying industries that are similar to the second member industry;

execute, by the social networking server, a job search based on the profile data of the second member and the identified industries that are similar to the second member industry; and

causing presentation on a display of one or more of results from the job search.

16. The machine-readable storage medium as recited in claim 14 , wherein expanding the job search query further comprises:

determining industries with a similarity coefficient to the query industry greater than a predetermined threshold; and

adding the determined industries to the job search query to obtain the expanded job search query.

17. The machine-readable storage medium as recited in claim 14 , wherein the machine further performs operations comprising:

identifying job recommendations for a second member without receiving a job search query, the identifying job recommendations comprising:

accessing profile data of the second member, the profile data including a second member industry;

identifying industries that are similar to the second member industry;

execute, by the social networking server, a job search based on the profile data of the second member and the identified industries that are similar to the second member industry; and

causing presentation on a display of one or more of results from the job search.