Monday night, 10:01pm and Chioma swipes right for just the third time on Candid.
She’s a student in London, working agency event shifts, scrolling Candid when a match lands at Shuffle Club, Shoreditch.
She swipes right and within five minutes, she’s introduced herself to their team – not a CV into a void, but a message straight to the person doing the hiring.
By lunchtime the next day, Shuffle Club had replied and invited her in for an interview and a trial shift. Today she’s part of the team.
Total applications it took on Candid? Three.
⚫️ The application black hole
Rewind a few weeks, and Chioma’s job hunt looked like almost everyone else’s in hospitality: application after application, the same CV uploaded again and again, followed by silence.
“Before finding Candid, I was applying for lots of different roles… One of the most frustrating parts was sending applications and often not hearing back, or not having the chance to properly show employers who I was beyond my CV.”
Chioma, Team Member @ Shuffle Club
The problem was never her skills or her experience. The problem was a hiring process built for volume, not people – one where nobody gets to see the person behind the PDF.
💬 A conversation, not formality
Within 20 minutes of creating her account – at 7am on a Friday morning – she was already talking directly to two employers. No cover letters, just real conversations.
“What I really liked about Candid was that it gave me a more direct connection with employers. Once I was matched with an opportunity, I had the chance to communicate with the employer and introduce myself in a way that felt more personal. It allowed me to showcase my personality, enthusiasm, and strengths, rather than relying solely on a written application.”
Chioma, Team Member @ Shuffle Club
She didn’t have to wait long for the perfect opportunity. The matches kept coming and just 17 days after signing up, she was matched with Shuffle Club.
🧩 Judged on merit, not on paper
Until the moment she chose otherwise, Shuffle Club knew Chioma as “Nori Butter Fennel” – her anonymous Candid identity.
No personal details shaping how she was seen before she’d said a word. Just her skills, her culture fit and the package she was looking for.
“I wasn’t just another CV in a pile of applications. It felt like employers were focusing on what I had to say, my skills, and how I presented myself, rather than making assumptions based on my background or personal details.”
Chioma, Team Member @ Shuffle Club
And when she was ready to be seen? That was her call to make, our anonymity puts the candidates back into the driving seat.
💃 Enter Shuffle Club
Now working there as a Team Member, Chioma has found a role where she gets to do what she loves most: creating brilliant experiences for guests, while building a career on her own terms.
Three swipes, one late-night message and an interview invite by lunch the next day. Sometimes finding the right job was never about sending more applications, sometimes it just takes one conversation with the right employer.
💗 First impressions of Candid
We asked Chioma, to explain in her own words, her thoughts after discovering Candid for the first time:
“My reaction was, ‘Oh, okay, this is different’. It was like getting a chance to make a first impression before an interview even happened.“
Chioma, Team Member @ Shuffle Club
“What I appreciated was that Candid made it easy to apply for opportunities without adding extra stress. The platform fit around my schedule, and I could continue exploring roles while managing my other responsibilities.”
👀 What happens when hiring gets human
Chioma’s story is proof of something hospitality has always known: the industry has never been short of brilliant people. What’s been missing is a way to help them get seen.
When candidates can show more than their CV, everyone wins. That’s the hiring experience Candid was built to create.
