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After three months of sending out job applications and hearing nothing but crickets, the laid-off employee had an idea: What if she reached out to people on Hinge? She’d previously met lots of interesting professionals in the course of previous dating efforts; a couple of them had even become colleagues. So why not try again now, with the intention of bagging a new job?

With frustration about the job market reaching new heights, a remarkable number of desperate candidates have turned to an unorthodox networking source: dating apps. Indeed, a recent poll found that 15% of workers have used dating apps for professional networking, while another 14% have considered it. Experts say that despite a recent hiring uptick, these numbers are only going to grow. “It can work if there’s industry alignment,” says business psychologist James Bywater, a senior client partner at Korn Ferry. “Relationships are a spectrum of possibilities.” A new contact can become a best colleague, a neutral acquaintance, or a worst enemy.

To be sure, dating apps are still primarily used for dating. But at a time when everyone’s inboxes are overflowing and many power wielders rarely set foot in an office, crossing paths with someone who can ignite a career can feel like finding a golden ticket. These kinds of encounters can seem particularly impossible when scrolling LinkedIn, land of unreachable contacts. “Most people don’t stand out on LinkedIn,” says Maria Amato, senior client partner at Korn Ferry. “It takes effort and skill.”

In all, one in ten users now primarily visit dating apps for career purposes, according to a survey by Resume Builder. Tinder, Bumble, and Facebook Dating are the most popular choices. Networking daters are focused: Many (66%) aim to connect with people at prestigious companies; many others (43%) say they have enjoyed mentorship or gotten important career advice.

This strategy can backfire and produce unwanted or useless connections, of course. But the data suggests that it’s working so far, with 88% of respondents in the Resume Builder survey reporting they’ve successfully made a work connection. Landing job referrals or leads is common (37%), as is a job offer (38%). Just 10% say their networking efforts were unsuccessful. (For those paying attention, this makes dating apps much more fruitful for work connections than long-term relationships, for which success rates hover between 10% and 25%.)

The question is how honest job seekers should be about their motives. Experts say that they’ll be forced to confess rather quickly, given that first-date conversations and networking outreach are very different. “The questions one asks colleagues deviate quite quickly from dating questions,” notes Bywater. Rather than inquiring about hobbies and life plans and pets and favorite foods, professional conversations bend toward current work efforts and how one got there and career advice.

And there’s always a risk of offending someone. After all, who wouldn’t be put off to discover that the date they’ve been anticipating is actually a meeting about someone’s career objectives? “It’s purposely misleading,” says Amato, who urges honesty over subterfuge. If professional kismet “happens naturally, that’s serendipity and fantastic. But trying to force it is going to backfire.” 

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