AI ruined the job market, so people are using dating apps to find work

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In today’s job market, submitting a résumé can feel like tossing a message into a digital void where it’s instantly judged, and often rejected, by an algorithm that doesn’t care about your personality, potential, or rent. 

With AI-powered hiring tools acting as bouncers at the club of employment, job seekers are getting creative. Very creative.

Some have decided that if networking is the only way in, they might as well swipe for it.

According to a new survey from ResumeBuilder.com, one in three people has used a dating app to help find a job. 

Nearly one in ten said that was their main reason for being there. Romance? Optional. Referrals? Mandatory.

The strategy is surprisingly calculated. 66% of respondents said they searched for people working at companies they wanted to join, while 75% intentionally matched with users in roles they hoped to land themselves. 

As ResumeBuilder’s chief career advisor, Stacie Haller put it, networking is “the only way people are rising above the horror show that the job search is today.”

And, awkwardly enough, it works. 88% of job-focused daters said they successfully made professional connections. 

That often meant advice, mentorship, referrals, or interviews, but 37% went all the way and got a job offer. 

In a truly modern twist, 38% also said the professional connection became physical, proving that sometimes you can have it all. The rise of AI in hiring is a big reason for this behavior. 

Companies rely on automated résumé scanners to handle floods of applications driven by mass-apply culture on platforms like LinkedIn. 

These systems are fast and cheap, but also notorious for bias and false negatives. Even highly qualified candidates can be rejected before a human ever sees their name.

That’s where referrals come in, often the only reliable way to bypass the algorithm. 

But networking favors people who already have connections, reinforcing inequality, a trend noted by Cornell professor John McCarthy of Cornell University. 

For those without built-in networks, dating apps are becoming the workaround. While Tinder and Bumble are the most commonly used, some platforms lean into the crossover. 

Raya lets users search by industry, and Grindr reports that roughly a quarter of its users network professionally. Love may be dead, but apparently, job leads are thriving.