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Job seekers are so desperate to find their next gig in a tough employment market that they are increasingly turning to dating apps to network and get interviews.
A recent survey from Resume Builder found 34 percent of respondents have used dating apps for job or career-related purposes in the past year.
Of those who used dating apps for jobs, 39 percent got an interview and 37 percent got a job offer. The survey, which was conducted in October, found 42 percent of dating app users who were job seeking were motivated by a difficult job market.
“Younger professionals in particular feel a lot of pressure to get ahead in a hypercompetitive market. Traditional networking platforms, such as LinkedIn, can feel oversaturated and transactional, where everyone is pitching rather than genuinely connecting,” Resume Builder’s Chief Career Advisor Stacie Haller said in the survey results. “Dating apps, in contrast, provide a more personal and low-pressure environment for building authentic relationships.”
A new Bloomberg report put names to these job seekers, who shared their personal experiences with networking on dating apps.
Tiffany Chau, a 20-year-old junior at California College of the Arts, used Hinge this fall to find a summer internship in product-design.
“I feel like my approach to the dating apps is it being another networking platform like everything else, like Instagram or LinkedIn,” Chau told Bloomberg.
She ended up getting tips from someone who recently interviewed at business consulting firm Accenture.
Alex Xiao, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of California at Berkeley, was on the opposite end of this networking trend.
Xiao, who is studying analytics, is a director at a dating app startup geared toward college students called Ditto AI. He’s matched with multiple people who wanted help with their careers, including some bold types who asked him for a job.
“A lot of connection in general just boils down to: ‘how can you help me further my career?’” Xiao told Bloomberg.
While some dating app users who are looking for love may be put off at the thought of their potential matches trying to network, instead of seeking a romantic connection, it’s not a surprising trend given the state of the job market.
The unemployment rate in November was at 4.6 percent, according to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate for younger adults aged 20 to 24 was even higher at 8.3 percent.
