This is slightly unexpected.

According to a new report from Axios, TikTok is currently testing a new tool that would enable brands to recruit employees on the platform, and promote their internal workplace culture to potential candidates via TikTok clips.

As explained by Axios:

“The pilot program is designed to help people find jobs on TikTok and connect with companies looking to find candidates. It’s also meant to help brands use TikTok as a recruitment channel.”

Axios says that the new recruitment platform, as it currently stands, is not integrated within TikTok itself, but is accessible via a separate web page, which can then be linked back to the TikTok app. Through this process, brands are able to post jobs that can be shared through their TikTok clips, while users are able to share a TikTok video resume to apply, rather than a traditional document. 

The company is currently testing the tool with a beta group of companies.

It’s an interesting development, a sort of new take on LinkedIn for younger users, which provides direct connection via the medium that they’re increasingly comfortable with. 

And it actually aligns with broader usage trends, because as reported by The Washington Post back in March, TikTok is already becoming an active space for career guidance and advice.

As noted by The Washington Post:

“TikTok, widely known for 15-second videos of cranberry juice-drinking skateboarders and group dance challenges, is fast emerging as a 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.”

Which seems unlikely, but also somewhat logical at the same time, particularly for those organizations that are seeking candidates with social media skills. Which, given the rise of eCommerce over the past 12 months, is a lot.

Indeed, according to a recent survey SkyNova, TikTok is the social platform that business owners currently want to crack the most, with the rising app still leading the download charts, and on track to become the next billion-user app. With that in mind, it makes sense that businesses would consider utilizing TikTok for recruiting for such roles – yet even beyond that, users are increasingly engaging with career development-related posts within the app. 

According to TikTok, videos using the hashtag #careeradvice generate more than 80 million video views a day per day, while career advisers like Tessa White are making use of the short, engaging clips to provide actionable tips.

Really, it’s just speaking the evolving language of modern web users. Digital consumption trends clearly show an ever-increasing adoption of video content, and short video content, in particular, is on the rise, be it via Snapchat Discover’s episodic, vertically-aligned presentation, and now, TikTok clips, which enable creators of all types to condense a lot of info down into easily digestible, engaging posts.

But what’s particularly interesting here is the expanding use case for the app. When TikTok first began, it was all goofy dance clips and Vine-like visual gags, or responses to internet memes that served little value outside of shallow entertainment. Which may well be enough within itself to sustain the app over time, but newer usage trends like this show that TikTok’s user demographic is changing, and that people are finding increased value, and opportunity, via the app’s quick, creative clips.

TikTok’s own data underlines the same, with older users engaging with hashtags like #parenting (4b views) for example, and #momlife (20b), facilitating new use cases, and new, potential marketing value, for the app.

The adoption of career advice clips further highlights this expansion, which likely points to there being a lot more to TikTok than you might think, while the platform’s highly attuned, highly personalized algorithms are also helping to fuel these new shifts, again broadening your TikTok horizons.

In essence, you can’t take TikTok at face value, and if you think you know what it’s all about, it may be time to reassess. 

Spending some time in the app, searching by hashtags relevant to your business, and your niche, could uncover a whole other subculture of short clips that you never knew existed.  

And soon, it might just help you find your next best job candidates.