A Popular Dating App Is Betting That You’ll Look For A Job The Same Way You Look For A Date

You might be used to swiping left and right as you search for love, but would you be willing to adopt that same approach to find your next job? A new offshoot of the dating app Bumble is hoping that the dating platform could make networking and job-hunting not only easy but possibly even … fun.

Bumble Bizz exists within the Bumble app, but exists in a separate ecosphere, allowing users to upload a digital resume. From there, it’s fairly straightforward with companies posting job listings on the app just as they would on LinkedIn, or any other dedicated job-search site. But on Bumble Bizz, candidates swipe left or right to favor jobs, just as they would on the dating app.

Much as the Bumble dating app is predicated on women making the first move, Bumble Bizz has been launched with a similar “women first” approach in mind. Bumble CEO and founder Whitney Wolfe Herd stated that the two platforms strive to achieve the same goal for users. "With Bizz — much like Bumble dating — we want to empower women to have the confidence to make the first move within a professional environment,” she said to Refinery 29.

Wolfe Herd also spoke to the obstacles Bumble Bizz hopes to address with its operating platform, removing any possible intimidation or condescension that can come in the early stages of job inquiries. “Our hope is that by women making the first move, we filter out unwanted and unnecessary conversations that many women have experienced on other professional platforms and we allow them to set the tone and steer the conversation in the way that they see fit."

Little is being made by Bumble of what Bumble Bizz will mean to employers that might be hesitant to enter a marketplace where candidates are making snap decisions on positions with a literal flick of the wrist. However, if candidates find it a suitable — or even pleasant — experience, employers will likely waste no time in broadening their presence to the app to find the talent they seek.

Nonetheless, the problems inherent to launching a job search app on a dating platform aren’t lost on many learning of the development.

There’s also the awkwardness of having to explain to your unenlightened significant other why you’re on a dating app all of a sudden.

That’s … a wrinkle the company may want to iron out sooner rather than later. A job-search app isn’t as valuable if it destroys your romantic life in the process.