Tough Job Market Has People Using Dating Apps To Get Interviews
- Reference: 0180479963
- News link: https://interviews.slashdot.org/story/25/12/29/2144201/tough-job-market-has-people-using-dating-apps-to-get-interviews
- Source link:
> Most people use dating apps to find love. Tiffany Chau used one to hunt for a summer internship. This fall, the 20-year-old junior at California College of the Arts tailored her Hinge profile to connect with people who could offer job referrals or interviews. One match brought her to a Halloween party, where she networked in hopes of landing a product-design internship for the summer. While there, she got some tips from someone who had recently interviewed at Accenture. As for the connection with her date? Not so much. "I feel like my approach to the dating apps is it being another networking platform like everything else, like Instagram or LinkedIn," Chau said.
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> Chau is among a cadre of workers who are [1]using dating apps to boost their job searches . They're recognizing that the online job hunt is broken as unemployed workers flood the system, AI screens out resumes and many job matching programs are overwhelmed. Automation has squeezed human contact out of hiring, which has pushed applicants to seek any path to a live hiring manager, no matter the means.
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> The overall US unemployment rate continued to climb throughout 2025, reaching 4.6%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And while the number of unemployed high school graduates held steady at about 4.4% in November, the rate for workers with a bachelor's degree rose to 2.9% from 2.5% a year ago. About a third of dating app users said they had sought matches for job hook-ups, according to a [2]ResumeBuilder.com survey of about 2,200 US dating site customers in October. Two-thirds targeted potential paramours who worked at a desirable employer. Three-quarters said they matched with people working in roles they wanted.
"People are doing it to expand their networks, make connections, because the best way to get a job today is who you know," said Stacie Haller, ResumeBuilder.com's chief career advisor. "Networking is the only way people are rising above the horror show that the job search is today."
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-29/tough-job-market-has-people-using-dating-apps-to-get-interviews-mjqzm1bo
[2] https://www.resumebuilder.com/1-in-3-dating-app-users-are-swiping-for-jobs-not-love/
Always been (Score:2)
> Networking is the only way people are rising above the horror show that the job search is today.
Networking has always been the best way to get your career kick-started after you finish school. After that, your experience should do most of the talking.
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>> Networking is the only way people are rising above the horror show that the job search is today.
> Networking has always been the best way to get your career kick-started after you finish school. After that, your experience should do most of the talking.
It has been my experience that it works throughout one's career as well. Yes experience and competence is a big part but sometimes it helps if people know what you got.
Dating apps for jobs? (Score:2)
An interesting idea, but what if you're a non-skinny woman, or a man under six feet?
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> An interesting idea, but what if you're a non-skinny woman, or a man under six feet?
Good point. Seriously - this approach is an embarrassment. And there comes a point where a person has to perform, which is not always correlated with physical appearance. And I take it that whoever her date is, when she's at the party, he has to be okay with being abandoned while she looks for work. Sounds like a horrible path.
Re: (Score:3)
Well then you can't take advantage of desperate men.
This strikes me as a subtle type of catfishing. It also occurs that you could use a fake photo, because what's the guy gonna do after he gets you an interview--tell HR she didn't look like her photo? (Note that the guy probably isn't a CEO or something--almost all companies pay attention to referrals and recommendations.)
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> An interesting idea, but what if you're a non-skinny woman, or a man under six feet?
More to the point, dating apps already suck for young men. It's hard enough for them to get a match of any kind, and the apps are notorious for women ghosting men or going out with men just to get a free meal or monetary favor of some kind. Now imagine finding out that the only reason a woman goes out with you was to use you for your work connections. How is this not a kind of catfishing or fraud?
I tell my sons to avoid these apps like the plague. This kind of stuff only reinforces that.
Gross (Score:1)
So Tiffany Chau used a dating platform as ploy to get a job interview rather than to actually find a date. Perhaps the "date" prospect lucked out that it didn't lead to anything further.
Gold digging in the AI age? :)
Re: (Score:3)
I don't know, I've encountered more obnoxious things recently... like a tech news site that constantly links to paywalled news articles :)
Gross, but what are you going to do? (Score:1)
It's pretty disgusting behavior IMO, but on the other hand, a girl's got to eat.
If you don't have a connection, don't go on the date, and it won't happen to you.
Hard Pass (Score:2)
If she starts talking about what she wants out of me before I have met her, that's a hard pass.
Dating apps are already a dumpster fire. May as well just ask for free dinner and make it clear that she has no interest in the date itself at all.
More like quid pro quo than networking (Score:1)
I suspect its more like quid pro quo than networking
Apparently we need to bring back 80's PSAs (Score:2)
because that's sexual harassment, and I don't have to take it.
Using a dating app to find a job is like (Score:2)
using LinkedIn to find a date.
Sure, you could. but *should* you? Probably not. In both cases, you're more likely to annoy people and get blocked, than to accomplish your goal.
Fine arts (Score:2)
Let's be honest. It must be pretty empty in the non-tech job market at the moment. But if you studied fine arts... perhaps these sort of difficulties were not that difficult to predict.
Re: (Score:2)
It does not say fine arts. She studied in a "college of arts" and is looking for an internship in "product design". Fine art is decorative while design is functional.
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> It does not say fine arts. She studied in a "college of arts" and is looking for an internship in "product design". Fine art is decorative while design is functional.
Could be both. I had fine arts majors interviewing for jobs doing illustration work. Regardless, I wouldn't be terribly impressed with a person using a hookup site to get work.
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> Regardless, I wouldn't be terribly impressed with a person using a hookup site to get work.
I'd be impressed with her initiative and imagination. That's far more valuable than a four year degree.
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I'd wonder if she put out.
Re: (Score:1)
Depends. Are you hiring?
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Always. But don't bother unless you're willing to make at least 500k
Re: Fine arts (Score:2)
If you do anything art related, not only do you need to network, but you need to have your "break out" moment or else you'll never really do particularly well. And you won't stand a chance at that unless you can get on the good side of people in your industry. Not willing to perform sexual favors? Your politics aren't the same as theirs? You hang out with the wrong crowd? Good luck. It's doable, but you'll really have to be on the far top side of the bell curve. Those big fancy award ceremonies you see aren
Re: (Score:2)
> Good luck. It's doable, but you'll really have to be on the far top side of the bell curve.
You indeed must be on the far right of the Bell Curve. And you cannot be just an artist. You need to have self promotion skills, you need business skills.
The issue for "Networking" on Hinge or Bumble or Tinder is you set yourself up for being used for sex, and get very little in return. Going to a party of hinge people sounds like the networking is going to be more like getting a train run on you than getting a job.
No - just no. There are paths to follow, and networking is critical - I still do it, an
Re: (Score:3)
What if the party was hosted by someone named Epstein who owns a private island?
If you have a fine arts degree (Score:2)
You are in better shape right now than if you have a computer science degree. Unemployment among liberal arts majors is lower than it is among CS majors.
You also probably didn't spend very much to get your Masters or your doctorate if you spent anything at all. That's because despite what FOX News tells Grandpa very very few people borrow money to get advanced liberal arts degrees. Yes they will borrow money for their undergraduate but for graduate degrees those are almost always paid for by grants, usu