The pilot program, titled ‘TikTok Resumés’, allows prospective employees to apply for a selection of entry-level and experienced positions by captioning their videos with the #TikTokResumes hashtag. Companies participating in the scheme will accept resumés till the end of the month.
A separate site, tiktokresumes.com, offers application tips and sample videos. It also allows jobseekers to browse listings by more than 30 companies, ranging from the WWE, NASCAR, and NBA team Detroit Pistons to ad agencies, hair salons and fast-food chains, and even TikTok itself.
However, not every position is potentially as exciting as the listing for the next “WWE superstar,” which invites applicants with “world-class athleticism”, and the necessary physical attributes, work ethic, and personality, as well as “global appeal & diversity” to “step into the ring.”
Meanwhile, NASCAR and the Pistons are looking for great sales representatives to showcase their business development skills – though not on the hardwood or around the track.
Target is looking for workers to fill weekday and night shifts at its warehouses, while Chipotle is on the lookout for someone to man the grills and prep stations at its restaurants in various cities. Other positions listed on the website are for on-camera and media production talent, perhaps more tailored to the kinds of skill sets found in the app’s Gen Z and millennial user base.
Although best known for setting off viral video trends, the app has previously waded into the job recruitment space with content uploaded as part of hashtag campaigns such as #CareerTok.
In a blog post, the company said it viewed the new initiative as a “natural extension” of its ‘College Ambassadors’ program, which recruits students to represent its brand on campuses.
CareerTok is already a “thriving subculture on the platform, and we can’t wait to see how the community embraces TikTok Resumés and helps to reimagine recruiting and job discovery,” global marketing head Nick Tran said of the pilot.
While the initiative’s stated goal is to encourage users to “turn their traditional paper resumé into a digital video resumé or elevator pitch,” some of its stringent privacy requirements may give job hunters reason to pause.
In particular, the platform’s insistence that video resumés and applicant TikTok profiles need to be opened up to public viewing, which could make for awkward conversations further along the recruitment process, as well as with current employers, if they happen upon them.
In the FAQ section of the website, prospective applicants are repeatedly told to make sure their video resumé’s visibility setting is set to “for everyone” in order to let recruiters see it. The video also needs to remain “up and public” for a month to “give recruiters enough time to review” it.
The lack of a uniform hiring portal also means applicants cannot view or track their resumés or their status throughout the hiring process. The website notes that some companies will reach out to successful applicants they want to interview, while others will “ask you to formally apply through their applicant tracking system.”
The website also noted that participating companies had been “advised to not take views or likes into consideration” during their hiring process, but did not disclose whether there were mechanisms in place to ensure that would be the case.
