I tried out Bumble for business so you don’t have to
The first time I’d heard of bumble was when one of my girlfriends was telling me about a date she’d met on there, a man who had an extreme phobia of bees, there’s an irony there, I mean I wouldn’t join a dating app called moth (yes I’m scared of moths). That friend and the bee guy are now living together, they seem happy and by all intents and purposes bumble worked for them, it did what it was supposed to do.
I recently found out that this dating app has a business networking function, aptly named ‘bizz’, I wondered if, like the dating side, it did what it was supposed to do. After asking around for a review I couldn’t identify anyone who’d used it, or who’d admit to using it at least.
I used bumble for 2 weeks, 1 week on premium and 1 week on the free plan, just to make sure my review is fair and reflects the different opportunities of bumble.
The App
There’s an ethos on there that women make the first move, which I like, but in a business context, it didn’t make a great deal of sense.
There wasn’t a great deal of outward misogyny on there, which is lovely, and everyone I’d spoken to was polite. Interestingly, because ‘bizz’ is not sexual, it throws men and women into the same pool, but when I messaged women they didn’t message back (Ouch) and they never message first. Which was an odd observation for a site-dependent on women driving the conversation.
Positives
- If you’re job hunting bumble could be an option. There were countless profiles of young 20-somethings looking for restaurant and bar jobs, although I didn’t spot any restaurant managers so how successful these job hunters were is yet to be answered. There was a vast array of people in creative industries, designers, marketers, people in the arts… some employed, some not. There seemed to be a common theme of ‘ten bob millionaires’ flashing sports cars, gold watches, and sometimes even bikini-clad women in a jacuzzi (how utterly cringe). I would recommend generalist recruiters get on there if you’re looking to fill low skilled roles in a local area, it could be a safe bet and there seemed an abundance of proactive young people looking for roles.
- Another positive is Its simplicity, the lack of functionality is definitely going to be mentioned in the ‘negatives’ area of this article, but there’s a certain charm to the lack of capability. You swipe, if you think that person would make a good business contact you swipe right and hope that they do too, yes that’s another issue/feature of the app, no one can message anyone unless you mutually swipe right on one another. For all of those people who moan endlessly about being spammed on LinkedIn, maybe try bumble.
- You can try professional networking topless, I didn’t give that a go myself but certainly witnessed it, he seemed happy.
- Unlike LinkedIn (which I actually enjoy as far as social media goes) there are no adverts, no attention-seeking ‘poor me’ posts, no politics or other tripe. . . . I mean, there’s literally nothing, so not a good source of business news either.
Negatives
- There’s no search function, you can’t decide to look for an HR consultant for example and type in ‘HR consultant’, you simply have to swipe left or right on whoever is also using the app, it’s the lucky dip of networking.
- Everyone I spoke to, albeit briefly, seemed nice enough there was no horrifying experience. I didn’t meet anyone in person and I didn’t come across anyone rude. But after the pouty sexy poses of the girls, with the smooth filters, the occasional topless picture, and the ultimate fact that this started out as a dating app I came away from the site asking ‘Could blurring the lines between dating and finding a job leave people vulnerable to exploitation or just an uncomfortable work experience?’.
- I came across a worrying amount of cockroaches, sorry I mean “coaches”, life coaches, business coaches, success coaches, CV coaches, personal development coaches…. Kind of worrying, especially considering the amount of potentially desperate unemployed people there.
Final review
I deleted my account.
I came across no one in my industry, or who appeared to be in a position to benefit from our B2B services (cyber security) there. There was no one whom I’d like to take for a glass of wine to discuss their cyber defence strategy or seek advice from on our 2022 progressions. The sheer amount of job seekers was interesting, but I’d never hire someone from bumble, it would just feel inappropriate.
You can download bumble here and give it a whirl for yourself.
Eliza-May Austin is the CEO & Co-Founder of th4ts3cur1ty.company and their subsidiary PocketSIEM.
