{"id":6932,"date":"2023-03-13T12:11:40","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T12:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/?p=6932"},"modified":"2023-03-13T12:12:18","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T12:12:18","slug":"tiktok-your-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/?p=6932","title":{"rendered":"TikTok your career"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TikTok<\/a><\/h3>\n

More than ever, there is a wealth of careers advice online that OU students may use to help steer their career. We hope our on-demand webinars on social media networking<\/a> and LinkedIn guide<\/a> will help you navigate your cyber-presence, as well as our recent LinkedIn: standing out from the crowd<\/a> session which was hosted by the OU and run by EMBRACE, Microsoft’s Black, Asian and minority ethnic outreach programme.\u00a0In recent years, however, the new kid on the social media block, TikTok, has captured a lot of attention. It\u2019s become so popular for everything from marketing make-up to managing health issues, from cat videos to\u2026 career planning.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard of TikTok, but what exactly is it?<\/h3>\n

TikTok is a video sharing platform that has gained huge attention in recent years and has now been installed over 3.5 billion times on devices worldwide. The platform has become particularly popular with the younger Millennials and Generation Z (teenagers and twenty-somethings).<\/p>\n

What\u2019s it got to do with career development, isn\u2019t it just bizarre and often random videos?<\/h3>\n

Well yes, it has those sorts of videos, but it can also provide insight into a range of careers. You\u2019ll find a wide range of \u2018day in the life\u2019 videos featuring electricians, hiring managers to IT professionals, living various career paths across the globe. There are also self-styled \u2018career gurus\u2019 offering advice which may vary considerably in quality \u2013 more on that shortly. Of course there is no substitute for professional careers guidance and as an OU student we have you covered with our vast range of self-service resources<\/a>, group workshops and employer panel events<\/a> and professionally qualified individual support<\/a>, but TikTok can be a place to share experiences and learn from others.<\/p>\n

TikTok as a career<\/h3>\n

Some people aspire to become \u2018Content Creators\u2019 and use platforms such as TikTok to generate an income, either from TikTok\u2019s monetisation streams or using videos to promote an existing business. Equally, TikTok as a company may provide an enticing career path for anyone interested in working for a social media giant. Roles range from research and development, to operations, design and marketing, to name a few. Check out our OU career planning tools<\/a> to help you discover the types of roles that best match your qualifications, skills, strengths and interests.<\/p>\n

CIA \u2013 Investigate the risks of TikTok career advice like a detective<\/h3>\n

Jumping in to learn, share and create may sound like a win: win. However, as a careers guidance professional, it\u2019s my duty to highlight a few potential pitfalls. Become an expert TikTok investigator with my CIA checklist:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Context
    \n<\/u><\/strong>Does the context fit? Social media platforms are global. Information is often context specific. You might hear boasts of huge earnings and how brilliant a role can be. What may not be clear is what location and circumstances this applies to.<\/li>\n
  2. Intention
    \n<\/u><\/strong>What are the user\u2019s intentions? Check for the TikToker\u2019s hidden interests. You\u2019ll find lots of videos offering advice on \u2018get rich quick\u2019 ideas and lucrative side hustles. Usually there are no quick wins or easy money gains, so make sure to evaluate any claims with a healthy dose of scepticism.<\/li>\n
  3. Accuracy
    \n<\/u><\/strong>Assess whether the information, insight and advice is accurate. This is where your critical digital literacy comes into play. As a higher education student, you\u2019re learning how to evaluate information sources to check for provenance, reliability and validity, and this approach applies to social media content too.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Get inspired by TikTok but get the real deal<\/h3>\n

    TikTok is an entertaining source of all sorts of insights into a range of careers, but always remember that as an OU student, Careers and Employability Services\u2019 professionally qualified support<\/a> is here for you throughout your studies and for up to three years after you qualify.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"OU
    \nLeigh Fowkes is an OU Careers and Employability Consultant specialising in supporting WELS students. Leigh helps students navigate their futures, figure out their goals and build their confidence and skills to achieve them through one-to-one careers consultations and by designing career learning events and resources for the OU. Explore the rest of Careers Stories page for more articles from the Careers and Employability Services team.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    More than ever, there is a wealth of careers advice online that OU students may use to help steer their career. We hope our on-demand webinars on social media networking and LinkedIn guide will help you navigate your cyber-presence, as well as our recent LinkedIn: standing out from the crowd session which was hosted by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":6934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career-planning","category-networking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6932"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6948,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6932\/revisions\/6948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}