Updates are an essential yet tricky responsibility apps have to undertake. While some bug fixes and improvements help apps stay relevant in the present times, others have the potential of redefining the platform altogether. Twitter, for example, announced its ‘Tip Jar’ feature in April, which allows users to tip favourite creators for their tweets. Although the feature was being tested to help creators monetise on the platform, the move has earned Twitter the label of being the “new OnlyFans.”

The latest on the list with its own set of updates seems to be TikTok—with a job listing and video resume feature all set to redefine the platform. Will it be for the better or worse? And will it actually end up being beneficial for young users on the hunt for creative jobs? Let’s dig in.

TikTok’s upcoming recruitment features seek to bridge the gap between participating companies and interested applicants. The pilot programme will provide users with ready access to job openings while offering companies a channel to recruit gen Zers into their workforce.

Primarily featuring entry-level jobs, the platform will let users apply by submitting a video resume rather than a traditional application. This video will act as an elevator pitch where users can creatively edit and summarise their work experience for the hiring company to review. While these pitches are shared privately with the company by default, TikTok will also prompt users to post them onto their profile to help publicise the new service.

Apart from this cross-posting prompt, however, the entire recruitment business—along with all of its features—will be kept off the core TikTok app. The platform will instead offer a dedicated webpage for job listings and applications, which will be accessed via the app. So, you sadly won’t get to witness a user Bussin’ it right after a mini Ted Talk about their work experience.

According to Axios, TikTok is currently beta testing the service with a group of companies, with several others in the talks about participating including various sports leagues.

On 14 January 2021, the recruitment team at °1824 promoted an open role at the company through a TikTok video, inviting viewers to apply. However, the recruitment process had a jarring twist. Interested candidates had to apply using the hashtag #1824Next with a video showcasing why they were a good fit for the team. Similarly, HBO amassed more than 300 applications for a summer internship using the hashtag #HBOMaxsummerintern. With more than 10.5 million and 2.4 million views on the respective hashtags to date, °1824 and HBO essentially signalled the onset of a new generation of recruitment channels via TikTok.

The overlap of careers with TikTok, however, isn’t a new frontier of job recruitments. According to ByteDance, the Beijing-based company that owns TikTok, #careeradvice gained serious momentum in the first few months of 2021—growing to more than 80 million views per day by mid-February. The popular hashtag features tons of ‘career babes’ sharing tips for landing internships, acing job interviews and improving resumes.

@jackiecaves

Recruiters can scan through a lot in just 6 seconds 👀 Make the most of it! #HorrorTok #resumetips #jobsearch #jobs #careeradvice #recruiter #resume

♬ original sound - kenn

In March 2021, The Washington Post went as far as declaring TikTok to be a “fast-emerging force in the job search ecosystem at a time when unemployment remains high, a new generation looks for their first jobs and pandemic isolation leads to hours of mindless scrolling.” The publication further highlighted the company’s efforts in cultivating career-related videos along with other how-to content areas such as financial advice, skills and home DIYs. TikTok also announced a $50 million Creator Fund last year, in support of educational content creators.

“We want people to turn to TikTok not just for entertainment, but to learn something new—to acquire a new skill or simply get inspired to do something they’ve never done before,” TikTok wrote in a blog post in June 2020, embarking on an interesting evolution by leveraging its heritage of entertainment to make the platform more useful to the lives of its users. “People are already doing this, and it’s a trend we want to get behind and accelerate,” the company added.

This shift, however, isn’t free of hiccups. If a company chooses to recruit via TikTok, as °1824 did with its call out, critics expect various biases to come into play. “If your skin is a different colour or English isn’t your first language, those are potential areas that companies can discriminate on,” said Natasha Makovora, a recruitment marketing specialist at The Employer Brand Shop. In an interview with Rewire, Makovora highlighted how this would be an important consideration although various organisations are being trained on unconscious bias and racism.

Another con, in this case, would be users losing out on opportunities over ‘unprofessional’ posts in case the employers decide to snoop into their public TikTok accounts. It may be worth setting up a secondary account for professional purposes only on TikTok—there goes a piece of advice you probably never thought you’d hear before.

Although the upcoming features in this regard render TikTok as a dubious pioneer of the next generation of recruitment, let’s not forget how 62 per cent of TikTok users are gen Zers who spend an average of 52 minutes per day on the platform. With video resumes offering the epitome of relatability on a video-first entertainment platform, TikTok might just prove to be a great way for brands to reach the demographic they’re increasingly looking to hire. And with new trends in the making as we speak, I bet witnessing gen Z pitching themselves to a recruiter on TikTok will be as entertaining as the content we currently watch on the app.

#TiKTok planning to launch a job recruitment tool where users can post resume videos & interact directly with employers. Will #linkedIn reduce premium $ & release new features coz it’s not great for job search#productdesign #digitalproduct #productmanagement #jobs

— Sunil S 🏳️‍🌈✊🏾🕊 (@UXification) May 12, 2021

TikTok’s Creator Fund wants to celebrate TikTok’s best and brightest by giving them the opportunity to earn money through their creative content, starting with $70 million (approximately £54 million) of funds available to thousands of creators across the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Spain. TikTok launched the Creator Fund on Tuesday 1 September as the first step towards “a new world of opportunity on TikTok,” according to the video-sharing app’s statement.

The platform wants to push its users to take their creativity, imagination and ambition to the next level. TikTok is also expecting the fund to rise to a total of $300 million (approximately £231 million) within 3 years and will extend it to further markets across Europe so that even more creators can be given the opportunity.

According to TikTok, creators receive funds based on a variety of factors from their videos, and of course, they should also know that performance on the app is dynamic—it changes naturally and often—so your funds will ebb and flow in the same way. In other words, the more creative your content is, technically, the more engagement you should receive and the more funds you should gain!

Last month, TikTok announced some of the first recipients of the fund, but tens of thousands of creators across Europe will now be eligible to apply. By rewarding innovative and creative content, the app hopes this fund will continue to support its community of creators—and probably bring in more users while it’s at it.

To apply for the Creator Fund, you’ll need to meet some initial criteria. You must be based in the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Spain, be 18 years or older, have at least 10,000 followers, over 10,000 video views in the past 30 days and post original content in line with TikTok’s community guidelines.

No! TikTok says there’s no limit on the number of creators who can join. It wants as many eligible creators as possible to make money doing what they love on the app.

You can apply for it directly through the TikTok app. Access the TikTok Creator Fund in-app through your pro/creator account, confirm you are over 18, then read and agree to the TikTok Creator Fund agreement. Once approved, you should start earning from the performance of your content, which you can view in your accrued funds on your Creator Fund dashboard. So get creating, and don’t forget to read the agreement before you start!

The funds that each creator can earn are worked out by a combination of factors, including the number of views and the authenticity of those views, the level of engagement on the content, as well as making sure content is in line with TikTok’s Community Guidelines and Terms of Service.

Because no two creators or videos are the same, there is absolutely no limit to the different kinds of content TikTok supports with the fund. The Creator Fund total varies daily and is dependent on the number of videos published by content creators that day, which means the daily fund will fluctuate based on the amount of content being published.

Not yet at least! There isn’t a fixed amount of money that TikTok allocates to creators and the same goes for the amount of funds released daily. The video-sharing app has committed to £231 million over the next 3 years to the Creator Fund.