For young professionals, the place where people gain job-related advice is no longer in the traditional sources of textbooks and counseling experts. It is in TikTok. Young people post advice in a concise, entertaining way about everything from writing a resume to getting a certain job interview. It is a source of job advice that Gen Z’ers and Millennials turn to. A recent survey among 1,000 professionals in this age group conducted by Youngstown State University (YSU) highlights the extent of the influence that TikTok is exerting on this age group in terms of shaping early career development. It looks as if what had been a source of entertainment is gradually becoming a virtual classroom.
How Young Professionals Use TikTok to Get Ahead
TikTok is not only a source of entertainment. It is also a source of practical career advice. In the survey, two thirds of Gen Z in the workplace, as well as nearly half of the younger generation of professionals, indicated that they used TikTok in searching for a career path. Also, half of the respondents indicated that they accessed job-related information in the app that they used in searching a career path.
However, this is not all they're doing on TikTok. A whopping forty-five percent of respondents believed that they had confidence in applying the topics that they learned from the videos. Over a tenth believed that a video led to them getting a job. Half of those who received a job remained in the same industry.
This is across industries, and over half of professionals in the technology and medical industries admitted that they turned to TikTok as a source of advice in those sectors. In the technology industry, one in four people credited a piece of advice from TikTok with helping them obtain a job.
Also, many people on TikTok indicated that they altered their job searching activities as a result of the videos on the app. Approximately 30% of young professionals altered their resume as a result of what they looked at on TikTok videos. Some popular hashtags that people can use to look for videos on TikTok include #jobsearch, #Resumetips, #careertok, #interviewtips, among others.
Even if most people consider TikTok as a social app only used for entertainment purposes, most of them had a positive experience in terms of getting job advice from the app since only eight percent received a negative response in following a career tip from TikTok.
TikTok’s Role in Career Resilience and Mental Health
What creators are doing on TikTok is not only making videos with advice on how one can make a resume, they’re also imparting to young individuals the unpredictability that comes with the new job market. This idea of career cushioning, preparing for potential job loss, will soon become a new trend that many young individuals will engage in.
Eighteen percent of respondents rely on TikTok to get job leads, skills, and backup plans if the initial attempts fail. This is particularly relevant in the technology field. A fourth of those in the technology industry use TikTok to post activities of looking for a job in order to keep themselves updated in case they lose that particular job. It also involves those in the medical and education industries, but not as often.
Nevertheless, TikTok is not always the best application to apply through as well as gain information. A third of young professionals revealed that seeing others' videos of job-related content, such as job offers or promotions, made them feel like they are falling behind in comparison to others. Over a third of respondents also believed that most of the job-related content on TikTok is too perfect. This is a source of stress. Thirty-four percent of respondents indicated that they feel the need to make their job searching process look beautiful and perfect with frequent postings. Nearly one in ten indicated that this is a source of stress that makes them not use TikTok at all.
Who Young Professionals Trust for Career Advice
Despite the immense use of TikTok, young professionals do not trust it completely. Nearly half of them indicated that LinkedIn is the app that they use the most, a whole lot more than they trust TikTok. Glassdoor and Indeed trailed not far behind. Reddit ranked high as a source of unbiased, unfiltered advice. Friends and peers also ranked high as sources. Career counselors as well as AI sources ranked lower as sources of advice.
TikTok came in as the least source of career advice that respondents trust. Only 16 percent of respondents trust TikTok as a source of career advice. This highlights that most youths use TikTok as a point of entry. While it's very useful for many, it can't be a full substitute for job platforms and actual human help.
A New Form of Career Education
Career education meant a workshop, a career fair, a classroom presentation, but this is a rapidly changing environment. A quick video on TikTok is what Generation Z, as well as Generation Y, needs in order to gain information in the same way as any form of entertainment.
In contrast to other traditional sources of information, TikTok contains authentic individuals communicating authentic experiences of a personal nature. This content could be disorganized, including a degree of fabrication, making it authentic nonetheless. For those viewers who feel no connection to the establishment’s career services, this app is more relatable.
It also normalizes failure and not being in the same position as other young professionals. In place of presenting that everyone gets a great job straight out of college that is well-paying, TikTok presents that struggle is common, as well as failure. This is a great theme in today’s job market that is often unpredictable.
Conclusion
TikTok wasn’t meant to be a career-focused app, but that is what people are doing. Young professionals are looking to this app to get advice, motivation, and help. It is assisting them in making changes to resumes, preparing for interviews, as well as getting a job.
It certainly won’t substitute the use of LinkedIn sites, but this is something that they lack. It gives people a source where they can see real individuals in real time talking about real experiences. This makes a job hunt experience a little less lonely.
As the lines between personal and professional life continue to blur online, a new purpose is emerging for TikTok. They, as well as those who use this service seriously in a professional environment, may gain a greater understanding of the needs of the next generation of workers.
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