LinkedIn for Dating and Bumble for Resumes?

When I came across the article from NPR that women were being asked out via LinkedIn, I cringed. And then I kinda laughed. Because of course women have been asked out on this business channel. Although thankfully this has never happened to me, I have actually experienced the opposite.

This past summer, as I was quarantine dating via Bumble, I made an interesting connection (and I’m using the word interesting here with a lot of sarcasm). We exchanged the normal pleasantries and usually “What do you do?” is one of those first questions. I keep things general because, ya know - safety, but I usually say, “I own a marketing business.”

“Oh, that’s cool,” he replied, “I’m a graphic designer.”

Then things got weird.

He sent me a link to his online portfolio and wanted to know my feedback. Feedback for…what? I thought. He then followed up, “And if you have any openings, I’d be happy to send you more of my work!”

Dude.

Bumble actually has a networking version of its app. You can make friends and business contacts here (called Bumble bff and Bumble biz, respectively) so he could have reached out to people for business here, but we were both using the most popular version of the app: Bumble date.

I know it’s hard out there for a lot of people right now, especially creatives. But just like the people trying to find dates on LinkedIn, there are plenty of successful business channels for you to send your online portfolio to the right contact. For instance, if this guy had connected with me on LinkedIn and sent me his portfolio through that channel. I might have actually clicked on the link. Through Bumble? Not so much.

I know the internet can be the wild, wild west, but there are still some rules, guys.