How is TikTok helping users get jobs?

How is TikTok helping users get jobs?
Source: Pexels, cottonbro

TikTok isn’t the first place you think of when looking for career advice, but it’s becoming an increasingly popular resource for keen professionals. Ever since COVID-19 hit, the job market has been a difficult place to navigate for many. Not only that, COVID-19 has resulted in many people being forced to work from home, or for the more unfortunate, losing their job. As such, many of us had a lot more time on our hands. While that has meant more fun time for some, others took the opportunity to develop new skills and hobbies.

From Coursera to Skillshare to EdX, there are many platforms available for learning new skills, whether it be learning a new language or playing a new instrument or how to edit videos. However, popular social media platform TikTok is gaining attention for its career advice content. The pandemic not only resulted in a surge in TikTok downloads but also saw more demand for business and career-based content.

Can TikTok help you with career advice?

Although TikTok is primarily known for funny short skits, dance or cooking videos, the app’s ever-growing content focusing on career advancement is soaring. The most popular hashtag among the business and career-based content on TikTok is #work, with a massive 29 billion posts under the hashtag. Other popular hashtags related to career advice on TikTok are #worklife and #jobtips, which have a staggering 4.7 billion and 2.2 billion posts, respectively.

Apart from the TikTok careers community, the app has seen many new influencers gain significant popularity through the app, many of whom have full-time careers made off the platform. Out of the Top 10 most followed accounts on TikTok, seven of them rose to fame through the app and have pursued a career in social media.

The Top 10 most followed accounts on TikTok

  1. Charli D’Amelio, 17 years old (@charlidamelio): 120.2 million followers
  2. Khabane Lame, 21 years old (@khaby.lame): 91.1 million followers
  3. Addison Rae, 20 years old (@addisonre): 81.9 million followers
  4. Bella Poarch, 24 years old (@bellapoarch): 76.2 million followers
  5. Zach King, 31 years old (@zachking): 62.4 million followers
  6. Will Smith, 52 years old (@willsmith): 58.9 million followers
  7. TikTok, 4 years old (@tiktok): 55.5 million followers
  8. Spencer Polanco Knight, 29 years old (@spencerx): 53.7 million followers
  9. Dixie D’Amelio, 19 years old (@dixiedamelio): 53.5 million followers
  10. Loren Gray, 19 years old (@lorengray): 53.3 million followers

TikTok’s unique algorithm allows users to watch content they are genuinely interested in, and as such many TikTokers have risen to fame simultaneously with the app’s popularity among the masses. While the majority of the most-followed accounts post videos solely for entertainment purposes, there are a wide variety of TikTok creators providing insightful content for career placement in general as well as for specific industries.

Although there are many creators providing business and career content on TikTok, we’ve rounded up some of the most popular TikTok careers creators with a brief description on the type of content they provide:

  1. @davidpaykine_ (1.6 million followers): Resume tips, life after college, job hacks
  2. @herfirst100k (1.5 million followers): Finance, Salary negotiation, Women in the workplace
  3. @erinmcgoff (1.5 million followers): General career advice, Film industry specific content
  4. @j.t.odonnell (1 million followers): Interview tips
  5. @shadezahrai (864,600 followers): Internal talk, Self mastery and focus
  6. @thisisvirginiakerr (643,600 followers): Digital video coach
  7. @wonsulting (632,800 followers): Resume tips and LinkedIn advice
  8. @icathryn (201,700 followers): Diversity and belonging career advice
  9. @jackiecaves (144,300 followers): HR tips and career advice
  10. @followmario (133,800 followers): Marketing, social media and career advice

TikTok also recently launched a pilot program to help users find jobs and connect with companies. Under the TikTok Resumes program, users are able to use TikTok to submit video resumes to companies using the hashtag #TikTokResumes. Companies can then use the app like a recruitment platform.

Although this is currently only being tested out in the United States, if it’s successful, we will likely see a global release. Companies like Chipotle Mexican Grill and Target. have begun accepting video resumes since July 7th. The pilot program is expected to last till the end of this month.

As humans, we tend to have very short attention spans. In 2000, the average attention span was 12 seconds. In 2015, that number decreased to 8.25 seconds. This is one of the many reasons why TikTok became so popular. As people want to collect as much information as possible in the shortest amount of time, TikTok has provided a platform for short, digestible and valuable content.

Instead of watching a 10 minute video on how to implement a certain edit on a video, users can now rely on TikTok to get that same information in 60 seconds. For many of those looking for insightful and digestible career advice or skills, TikTok is the best place to go.

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