This TikTok Trend Is Shining a Light on Hiring Discrimination
A new trend on TikTok is taking aim at hiring discrimination that is still rampant in today's workforce. Black content creators are coming forward to share that when they omit or change their race to "white" on job applications, they're landing interviews they otherwise didn't.
According to the National Women’s Law Center, throughout much of the pandemic, Black women’s unemployment (5.8%) has been significantly and consistently higher than that of Latinas, Asian women, and white women. “Black women have two [factors] counting against them, away from the majority, and this makes them have to work twice as hard to get half as much as the average white man," says Andrea Logan, career coach and founder of The Career Island, of both sex and race. "So many job seekers play with race statistics and say they're a 'white man' to get through the human bias in the initial phase of the candidate selection process of the hiring industry."
While this TikTok trend is new, the idea behind it is not. In 2016, the findings of a two-year study showed evidence of bias against minorities. Resumes, which were “whitened” or scrubbed of any racial cues, were more successful than resumes that included minority information. For Black candidates, 25 percent received callbacks with a whitened resume, while only 10 percent got calls when they left racial details intact.
“You could potentially get double as many callback interviews scheduled from declaring a different race or even changing the first or last name to blur race guessing if the name stands out,” says Logan. But there are disadvantages, too. “You will show up to the interview as a non-white or non-male candidate and cause an awkward conversation that essentially shows you that this potential employer could be racist and only selected your application because they thought it was a white person behind the resume.”
For 24-year-old Jacqueline Young, who tried the TikTok trend, getting even one interview was a battle after graduating from Methodist University in May 2021. “I was applying to 10 jobs a day,” Young says. “I had been applying to jobs since before I graduated college, and it was hard for me to get a job, especially with a major in psychology.”
Young hopped started putting “white” as her race on several applications to see if it made a difference. “When you are desperate, you think of everything. I found myself in a moment of desperation. Living in Virginia is expensive. The cost of daycare is the same as the cost of the rent. At the time, I was living off of credit cards,” Young recalls. Changing her race helped her get noticed, but she still received no job offers.
However, eventually, Young found a job working for a company with diversity goals that didn't require her to lie about her race. “It’s been life-changing, literally overnight,” Young says. “I’m still learning humbly. But since I got hired in June, I’ve been able to support myself and help my family. The quality of life has just been better.”
Logan suggests shopping around to find your fit, and "when you get to the interview, ask them how many Black people work there—if that is important to you. Interrogate the company on their hiring practices and find companies where people who look like you are the majority.”
As a stay-at-home mother looking to re-enter the workforce, Sumyia Evans, a 26-year-old Georgia resident, experienced a similar situation to Young when applying as a BIPOC woman, which prompted her to try the trend. “I filled out an estimated 140 job applications and only received three follow-ups. Most of them were mainly scam job posts from Indeed, and I received a total of 137 rejections."
Ultimately, however, Evans realized she didn't feel right changing her application to get noticed. “I honestly would not lie on any more job applications just to get a job. I want people to wholeheartedly accept me for me, regardless of race, gender, etc. When God has something for you, he will put you in the right room with the right people. I just landed a job as a teacher associate,” she shares. “I got a call back that same day and was set up with an interview three days later, had orientation the next day, and began working two days after my orientation.”
Young and Evans eventually found a job that was the right fit for them, yet many Black and minority parents, anticipating discrimination their child may face, are giving their children more “resume-friendly” names. Black author Austin Channing Brown is just one example. In a Grazia article, Brown shares how her mother once told her: “We knew that anyone who saw it before meeting you would assume you are a white man. One day, you will have to apply for jobs. We just wanted to make sure you could make it to the interview.”
Because of history and content creators now shining light on an ongoing issue, it's evident that companies are still failing as equal-opportunity employers, and more people are aware of it today. There's hope that as this trend spreads and more voices are being heard, companies will take an initiative to accept a more diverse candidate pool to push forward in their hiring process.
Written by: Kristina Valdez
5 Career-Focused TikTokers Who Are Making Us Lolz
Tik Tok, love it or hate, it is here to stay.
Welcome to 5 for 5, where we spotlight 5 women in 5 minutes or less.
Tik Tok, love it or hate, it is here to stay. The platform has seen explosive growth from consumers and creators alike, creating new celebrities and a new distraction for all of us with endless scrolling. In true Create & Cultivate fashion, we love a self-deprecating work meme as much as anyone else and these ladies are doing Oscar-worthy work.
1. Corporate Natalie
Natalie, who actually has a corporate job, nails the hilarity and awkwardness of the Zoom-era with her quippy TikToks. And did we mention she is part of the Create & Cultivate family? Yep! She spoke on our micro-influencer panel at Content Camp. FOMO? All good, check out our membership here.
2. The Shift Creative
Entrepreneur and creative Alexis Andra runs her fabrication and creative studio The Shift Creative with her team in Los Angeles. She brings the real talk to TikTok with her hilarious BTS of her day to day and life as a busy business lady. Bonus? she was on our C&C 100 list year and you can learn about her business here.
3. Nikki Mansch
Nikki, like many of us, is working hard to give her dog the life they deserve… and she is cracking us up along the way. Her relatable memes are giving us life as she pokes fun at emails, co-workers, and more.
4. Kameron Monet
Content creator and lawyer, Kameron Monet, is serving up nothing but piping hot confidence! Her feed is chock full of all the money and “me” motivation you need to get you through the week! We subscribe.
5. Loe Whaley
With over 160k tiktok followers and 6.6 million likes, Loe Whaley, is carving her own path on TikTok. The Canadian content creator is giving us all the “we are going back to office” feels. AHHHHHH!
MORE ON THE BLOG
Ask an Expert: How to Create Compelling Content and Grow Your Instagram, According to a VP Influencer Marketing
“The longer you wait, the harder it is to grow.”
We’ve been spending a lot of time at Create & Cultivate HQ discussing how we can best show up for and support our community during this uncertain time. Community is at our core, and connecting with others through one-of-a-kind experiences is what we love to do. While the world has changed, our mission has not. We’re committed to helping women create and cultivate the career of their dreams, which is why we’re proud to announce our new Ask an Expert series. We’re hosting discussions with experts, mentors, and influencers daily at 9 am, 12 pm, and 3 pm PST on Instagram Live to cure your craving for community and bring you the expert advice you’ve come to know and love from C&C. Follow Create & Cultivate on Instagram, check out our Ask an Expert highlight reel for the latest schedule, and hit the countdown to get a reminder so you don’t miss out!
“
The longer you wait, the harder it is to grow.”
—Rachel Zeilic, VP of Influencer Marketing at WhoWhatWear
With engagement on social up 30% since social isolation started, now might just be the perfect time to be growing your Instagram or finally figuring out wtf to do with TikTok. But in the midst of a crisis, creating good (and respectful) content can feel really difficult. In comes, Rachel Zeilic, VP of Influencer Marketing at WhoWhatWear, to answer all your questions.
Wondering what to post, when to post, what to pay for, or if TikTok is the right move for your brand? Rachel drops lots of advice on our IG LIVE on how to navigate social media in the midst of COVID-19. Tune into this Ask An Expert to make sure you don’t miss a single tip. We bet you’re already scrolling through Instagram, might as well scroll with purpose and grow your brand.
We Want Your (Respectful) Content
“Don’t make any assumptions. Don’t say, Now that we’re all working from home, because that isn’t true for a lot of people.”
“There really is a space for audiences to turning to influencers for comfort for information for distraction, they have a lot of time on their hands right now and time is a precious commodity so let’s serve them.”
“Stay away from anything that is like ‘this is a must-have’ because, if it’s not groceries or masks, it isn’t a must-have.”
“Some things that are performing really well right now is comfy chic, working from home outfits, beauty routines, anything affordable, people are still interested in spring trends, and they also want some escapism.”
“Now is also a time to give things away for free. Even if you’re a brand who could be doing well giving some at-home DIY recipes, people will really appreciate that and remember that when commerce opens up again. More than ever they will remember the brands who stepped up and are giving to the community.”
“This is the first time really in a long time where influencers’ lifestyles are really close to their followers’ lifestyles. They aren’t jetting around the world or wearing designer outfits. So this is a really great time for influencers to connect with their followers in a really relatable way.”
Get On TikTok
“TikTok is not like Snapchat or other platforms where they were popular but there was never really brand integration. TikTok is really different, the way it’s built is really engineered to be successful for brand campaigns. Particularly one feature, the hashtag challenges. That is incredible for creating UGC (user-generated content). To me UGC is gold. If your customer loves you so much that they are creating content, they aren’t an influencer, they aren’t getting paid, if they love the product so much they are creating content that is gold.”
“I think working with TikTok and ‘TikTokers’ absolutely should be part of your campaign given that the demographic aligns, it is a predominantly Gen Z audience. Also the KPIs of the campaign, you need to understand that currently TikTokers or influencers can’t link out anywhere, so if you’re expecting to see immediate sell-through from your campaign, TikTok is not the place to do it. But its great of awareness, you can reach massive audiences.”
“With regards to brands starting their own accounts on TikTok, it really depends if you can do it in a way that’s native to the platform. It’s really not going to work if you’re using the same kind of content you use on Instagram and other platforms. You should only be investing your time into growing a brand account on TikTok if you can do it in the way that is organic to TikTok.”
“The longer you wait, the harder it is to grow.”
Embrace Pay-to-Play
“Yes, it is a pay-to-play world. That being said, relationships and organic strategy are important to stretch your dollars.”
“It’s worth spending a little money on a consultant who can help you know how to spend your social budget.”
“Influencers assets on paid social perform so much better than campaign assets.”
“A lot of influencers have dropped their pricing or are more flexible on pricing right now.”
“Paid social pricing is down right now as well. You can make your budget stretch so much further right now.”
Insta Tips & Tricks
“We’ve been saying to influencers, Instead of getting a picture and then thinking, ‘Ugh what is my caption going to be?,’ why don’t you write the caption first and tell a story and then reverse that and think of an image that can convey that story?’ I don’t think they all have to be long, and they shouldn’t be long if you don’t have something to say. But every brand has a story to tell and every influencer has a story to tell and I think that can be great. It’s like micro-blogging.”
Tools to try:
“You should post as often as you can while creating quality content and without seeing a dip in engagement rate. The more you post the more your engagement will be spread out.”
About The Expert: Rachel Zeilic is an O.G. in influencer marketing, starting way back in 2007. She is currently the VP of influencer marketing at WhoWhatWear, running influencer campaigns for everyone from Walmart to Gucci. Before that she was creative Director of Majorelle at Revolve, and before that she founded two labels, Stylestalker and The Jetset Diaries.
Tune in daily at 9 am, 12 pm, and 3 pm PST, for new installments of Ask an Expert.
Follow Create & Cultivate on Instagram, check out our Ask an Expert highlight reel for the schedule, and hit the countdown to get a reminder so you don’t miss out. See you there!