You may have heard of the app -- Bumble -- and you probably associate it with a place to find a date. Now, users can snag jobs with Bumble Bizz. It's another profile that launched less than a month ago.
The app connects you with potential employers, partners and interns, blending the Bumble dating app with the framework of Linkedin, breaking traditional networking. Users create a profile connected to Facebook to verify your identity, and replaces hobbies with goals, experience, and links to work samples.
Bumble Chief Operating Officer, Sarah Jones-Simmer says, it changes the mold of business to business opportunities and offers a unique platform to expand relationships.
“We are striving to be a better tool for that awkward networking, drink cocktail hour. We're helping you meet people around you,” Jones-Simmer said. "We're at a tipping point for women's issues in the professional world and we need to empower women to take ownership of their next career steps."
For Clarisa Ramirez, Principal of Small Coffee, a public relations and marketing company for businesses in Austin, she signed up for the app after a friend recommended it for internship candidates.
“I would go to speak at universities, and post a blog and send it a bunch of different avenues, and maybe I would get 11 applicants,” Ramirez said. “Then I would have to sit down face-to-face and then narrow it down to one person. But with Bumble, all I had to do was say I was looking for an intern and I had people come and reach out to me…I got a whole bunch of different conversations, just wanted to make sure they had a professional look to them."
Within 48 hours of swiping, Ramirez chose Olivia, an Austin Community College student, to join the team.
“One of the things she really enjoys is working with people and bringing them into one space. I knew right away that I had to take her on,” Ramirez said.
“To make the first move in those conversations translates into confidence and empowerment in other aspects of your life,” Jones-Simmer said. "I think some inherent biases and decades of gender dynamics in the workplace have women feel like they don't want to raise their hand or they don't want to have themselves interrupted, so they won't bother to speak up. So, that's the sort of dynamic we are trying to change."
Bumble also launched Bumble BFF earlier this year to help you find friends in the area.
The app is available for both iPhone and Android.