TikTok has given birth to a growing number of creators with various backgrounds giving all sorts of career advice, and younger adults are listening.
A Resume Builder survey of Generation Z and millennial TikTok users found half of them get career advice from the platform, and 1 in 5 have made decisions based on advice from TikTok creators. Gen Z are people born between 1997 to 2012.
The trend began during the pandemic.
“Because TikTok came to its height during the pandemic, it created this unique camaraderie that we haven’t seen in a long time and that spilled over into careers,” said Julia Toothacre, Resume Builder’s resume and career strategist.
She added that “because there was so much happening during the pandemic with careers, and life and balancing and new opportunities, and we saw people saying, ‘Oh, that’s good advice. Maybe I should try that.'”
Younger adults tend to be less skeptical of online content. Toothacre said TikTok creators seem more genuine to many users.
What kind of career advice?
“People getting resume advice or interview tips or how to break in to certain industries or specific companies,” Toothacre said. “So, it really is all over the place.”
Many of those creators are sharing their own personal career experience and calling it career coaching, which Toothacre said it is not.
Followers may not be getting the kind of sincere career advice they think.
“Anytime that somebody is online anywhere, not just on TikTok, and saying, ‘We can get you a job in this amount of time,’ or ‘Do these three things and it is going to fix everything on your resume,’ that’s not necessarily true,” Toothacre said. “What they are trying to do is trying to market to you and to usually try to get you to purchase something.”
Especially for one-on-one career coaching, Resume Builder said it is important to vet that person to ensure the creator’s background and knowledge can help advise-seekers with their unique situation.
In the Resume Builder survey, 11% of Gen Z and millennials said they have paid creators for career-related services.
Regardless, 88% of the surveyed young adults who made career decisions based on advice from TikTok creators said those decisions have had a positive impact on their lives.
Resume Builder’s survey included 1,000 respondents ages 18 to 40, and was conducted in October. The full responses and methodology are online.
