Desperate job seekers are ditching LinkedIn in favor of a new networking source – dating apps.
About a third of dating app users said they had looked for matches based on the prospect of getting career help from them, according to a ResumeBuilder.com survey of 2,225 US dating site users.
Across apps like Tinder, Bumble and Facebook Dating, users hunted for matches working specific roles or at certain desirable companies – with many claiming they were motivated by a difficult job market.
Tiffany Chau, 20, a junior at California College of the Arts, used her Hinge profile to find relevant connections as she searched for a product-design internship.
One of her dates brought her to a Halloween party where she met someone who had recently interviewed at Accenture and got some tips from the person, according to a Bloomberg report.
“I feel like my approach to the dating apps is it being another networking platform like everything else, like Instagram or LinkedIn,” Chau told the outlet.
Job hunters are growing frustrated with more traditional options, as sites like LinkedIn see an overwhelming number of applications and many employers turn to AI bots to screen resumes.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate jumped to 4.6% in November, its highest level since September 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
For workers with a bachelor’s degree, the unemployment rate rose to 2.9% – up from 2.5% the previous year.
The labor market has shown several other signs of underlying weakness, like slowing wage growth, more people who have been out of work for more than six months and a higher unemployment rate among young people ages 20 to 24.
Alex Xiao is just 18 but is a director of Ditto AI, a dating app startup for college students.
Xiao, an analytics student at University of California, Berkeley, said he’s had multiple matches online with people who were looking for a job – not a date.
“A lot of connection in general just boils down to: ‘How can you help me further my career?’” he told Bloomberg.
He said some people just outright asked him for a job after seeing his job title – “And I’m like: ‘Bro.’”
The latest job-hunting trend is consistent across age groups – and reaps fairly successful results, according to the survey.
Among those who used dating apps for job-seeking purposes, 43% gained mentorship or career advice, 39% landed an interview, 37% received a referral or lead and 37% received an offer.
Only 10% said they didn’t see any of these outcomes.
One survey participant called the new job-hunting practice “weird but effective,” while another said, “It worked, but you need the audacity to ask.”
“It was definitely weird,” a third respondent said. “Feels like the system is so broken that folks have to resort to doing this.”
