How Gen Z is using TikTok to get career advice and land their dream job

By 2024, Generation Z workers will Expected to surpass baby boomers Entering the U.S. labor market for the first time. But now, the youngest generation in the workforce (the oldest among them are 27) is treated as a novelty—with everything from their email signatures to their salary expectations under the microscope. CNBC Make It explores how Gen Z is truly making its mark on career advice, office culture, and more.

Baron Liang had no idea that a two-minute video would change the trajectory of his career.

In April 2023, Leung made a tongue-in-cheek TikTok titled “Why You Should Hire Baron.” In the film, he stands in front of a PowerPoint presentation, pitching himself to potential employers as elevator music plays in the background.

Liang introduced himself as a “workaholic” and rattled off his greatest strengths, including creativity (“I don’t just think outside the box, I go back and make sure we don’t keep our wallets inside”) and leadership ( “I coach high school football in my free time. If I can get 50 teenage boys to listen, I can get anyone to listen.”)

Liang recalls the video as a “last-ditch effort” to attract the hiring manager’s attention after a frustrating job search.

The 28-year-old quit his last job at an advertising agency in March 2023 without receiving another job offer, with his optimism fading after two months of being rejected or withheld from recruiters .

“Nothing stuck,” Leung, who lives in Toronto, told CNBC Make It. “I realized I needed to do something different to stand out. I loved TikTok and thought I could show more in a video than a written resume. my personality.”

Succeeded: Liang Shared video on LinkedIn Within days, a recruiter from advertising agency Zenith messaged him. “She said, ‘I saw your TikTok, are you still looking for a job?'” Liang said.

A few weeks later, he signed a position as a media planner at Zenith in Toronto. When the recruiter introduced Liang to people at the agency’s office, she mentioned that she hired him because of his performance on TikTok.

Liang just celebrated his first anniversary at the institution. “TikTok has given me a job that I love,” he added. “Isn’t this crazy?”

Last year, Baron Leung created a tongue-in-cheek TikTok caption called “Why You Should Hire Baron” to stand out in his job search. He said the video caught the attention of recruiters and helped him get a job offer within weeks of posting.

Photo: Baron Liang

To the casual observer, TikTok is an app known for fashion trends, dance, and comedy skits. But it has also become a popular destination for young job seekers looking for career advice and opportunities.

Click on the hashtags #jobsearch, #careertok or even #corporatebaddies and you’ll find endless tips, tricks and rants about work, from how to “meet your paycheck” to “quietly quit” a job you hate.

Much of the advice is aimed at Gen Z and younger Millennials, helping them find their place in a chaotic post-pandemic workplace.

A February 2024 Pew Research Center report showed that TikTok use is particularly prevalent among young Americans—56% of U.S. adults aged 18 to 34 said they use the platform. Many people are using the app to guide their careers: 41% of Gen Z have made a career-related decision based on TikTok’s advice, 15% have received a job offer found on the app, Nearly 80% have used the app to guide their careers. That could soon change: In April 2024, President Joe Biden signed a law banning TikTok from being sold in the United States unless it was sold within a year.

Much of the career advice on TikTok echoes tips shared in podcasts, YouTube videos, and LinkedIn think pieces. For Gen Z, it’s just that the aesthetics and form are different and more appealing.

Find your next career with TikTok

Jade Walters says her career would be “completely different” without TikTok.

The 24-year-old participated in the app’s “TikTok Resumes” pilot program in July 2021, shortly after graduating from Howard University.

Through the program, companies like Chipotle and Target advertise open positions on the app and invite young job seekers to create video resumes; users with outstanding clips are then invited to begin the formal recruitment process.

Waters decided to try. She had secured a summer public relations internship at Ulta but was worried about finding full-time employment. Her minute-long video, which includes photos of her college experience and a voiceover detailing her extracurricular activities on campus and past internships, has been viewed more than 15,000 times in a matter of weeks.

It also caught the attention of TikTok recruiters — in September 2021, Waters moved to Chicago to work at the company as a media planner.

Around the same time, Waters began posting career advice videos on TikTok under the handle @theninthsemester, targeting college students and recent graduates like herself.

“I’m a first-generation college student, and I find TikTok to be the most accessible resource for career advice for people like me,” Waters said. “Schools don’t typically teach you how to interview or apply for jobs. So I wanted to create a resource to help and reach other young professionals.”

Walters quit her job at the social media giant in early 2023, but the app helped her find her next opportunity.

Her current boss at early-stage talent acquisition platform Yello found some career advice videos from Waters and invited her to speak at a Yello employee group just weeks after she quit. When she found out Waters was looking for a new job, she invited her to apply for an open position as an employer branding specialist on her team.

Waters, who still lives in Chicago, has been on the job for about a year. She works with employers to brainstorm initiatives to attract young talent, including virtual recruitment events, branded articles about employee benefits and the occasional TikTok.

“This is truly my dream job,” Waters said. “I’m really happy at this point in my career and TikTok plays a huge role in that.”

Gen Z’s professional confidante

TikTok is often the first place Grace Dunlavy turns to for career advice.

In 2022, when she was completing her senior year at Saint Louis University, she used the app to compare different career paths.

Two of the most popular types on TikTok are “Get Ready with Me” (GRWM) and “Day in the Life” (DIML) videos, in which people tell viewers about their morning or average workday routine, Also explain how they make a living. Dunlavy said she searches for videos in these categories from people doing jobs that interest her, such as “DIML communications specialist.”

More information about jobs for Generation Z:

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Gen Z is moving into the C-suite and canceling meetings, setting work hours, and more

Nearly 70% of Gen Z are freelancers or plan “I’ve never considered applying for a job”

“I was always looking for real-life simulations of what my life would be like if I chose to go down a certain path,” said Dunlavy, now an account executive at Codeword, a communications design agency in New York. “As beautiful as TikTok sometimes looks, there are some honest creators who show their lives, even the bad parts.”

The 24-year-old said watching videos of recent graduates working in public relations gave her the confidence to apply for public relations jobs in New York and provided inspiration for agencies, an industry she was interested in but didn’t have much experience in. .

Now, she uses TikTok to find tips for boosting her confidence at work and finding mentors. For a young professional still finding his place in the competition, even watching a 30-second video on how to write a more persuasive email can be “very helpful,” Dunlavey added.

Disadvantages of getting career advice on TikTok

While TikTok is beneficial for Gen Z and Millennial professionals, using the app for professional purposes is not without its pitfalls.

“You have to balance being genuine with oversharing or complaining,” warns Bonnie Dilber, director of recruiting at software company Zapier. “It’s fair to ask for improvements or challenges in the workplace, but if you Vent in all your videos and companies may be less willing to work with you.”

Dilber, 41, has nearly 70,000 followers on TikTok—she started posting resumes and interview advice on the platform in 2022 and quickly amassed a following of young professionals.

She encouraged younger employees to learn from those working in industries they are interested in and not to post anything on TikTok.

“For every company that sees it as a plus, there’s another company that might see it as a minus,” Dilber added. She noted that TikTok is popular in creative fields such as marketing, public relations, communications and graphic design, but less common in more conservative industries such as finance and law.

Shoshanna Davis is the founder of Fairy Job Mother, a career consulting firm that works with companies hiring Generation Z. When it comes to TikTok, “anyone can jump on the app and offer career advice or claim to be an expert without proof of qualifications, which worries some employers,” said Davis, 28.

“Managers don’t want people to jump to conclusions based on TikTok. Just because a video gets a lot of views, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily correct or good advice.”

Fact-check any career advice you find on social media platforms, she adds, whether that’s reading users’ LinkedIn profiles to learn about their work experience or contacting business schools or professional organizations such as Human Resources Management learn.

TikTok might help you connect with employers or improve your interviewing skills, Davis said, “but it can only get you further in the job search process.” “You still have to prove you have what someone is hiring for. Skills and experience. TikTok doesn’t always tell the whole story.”