How Tik Tok Gave Us The Career Wake Up Call We Needed
Sheldon Barrocks
Unlocking the Synergies between Workplace Trends and a Thriving Career | Author of Unstuck Mondays | Host of "Smile, It's Monday Podcast" | Supplier I&D and Sustainability @ Mars | Award Winning Logistics Professional
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$84 million.
Read that again. That’s the total combined annual revenue nine well-known influencers came close to losing when TikTok went dark last week for 14 hours before newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump temporarily brought it back to life with one of his many Day One executive orders.
If you haven't already heard, TikTok went completely offline on the evening of January 18th, leaving its 170 million users scrambling to find alternative platforms to share their content. For some, the content was purely for entertainment or informational purposes for their followers. For others, it was a way to keep their lights on.
Since TikTok’s inception, thousands of influencers have been using the popular app to monetize their talents, securing lucrative contracts with well-known brands. The compensation scale could be anywhere from a few hundred dollars to millions. Charli D'Amelio, one of the highest-earning stars and the second most-followed TikTok account, pulls in approximately $23.50 million annually with her content. Her sister Dixie isn’t too far off, making roughly $14 million.
The app’s brief downtime was ignited on Friday, January 17th, when the Supreme Court upheld a law passed in April 2024 requiring its parent company, ByteDance, to sell the platform or face a ban, effectively halting operations in the U.S.
ByteDance refused, leading to all Tik Tok access being cut off from users in the U.S.
However, it was short-lived. Just 14 hours after going offline, TikTok was back up. This happened after President Trump announced on Truth Social that he would sign an executive order (after being sworn in) to delay enforcement of the ban for 75 days. He also added that he wouldn't hold TikTok’s technology partners (Apple, Google, among others) liable for continuing to make the app available until he signed the order.
The Under-Skilled Workforce
Trump’s last-minute 'heroics' were a sigh of relief for influencers and the small business community that use the app as a major source of revenue. Because let’s face it, the average user won’t be able to immediately jump onto another platform like D'Amelio and other big names and potentially pull in the same type of money they were making on TikTok.
It’s plausible to believe that most influencers likely diversify their content output on other apps, resulting in multiple streams of income. But questions remain for those who make the majority of their revenue from TikTok. Will 75 days be enough time to find a replacement if the ban becomes permanent?
Challenges like this aren’t isolated to the world of solo entrepreneurs on social media.
In contrast, those like myself in traditional work (9-to-5 careers) face a similar dilemma when it comes to current trends in the job market. A recent report suggests that a large number of job seekers don’t currently have the skills recruiters are looking for when it comes to filling open positions.
According to HR Dive (via a LinkedIn report), while there’s an increase in people looking for work and HR departments are looking to hire more, the skill qualifications of job seekers aren’t matching company needs.
Erin Scruggs, LinkedIn’s head of global talent acquisition, told HR Dive, “The process is more challenging today because we are seeing a ‘skills mismatch’ between professionals and organizations – and that’s because skills and jobs are changing so quickly.”
"We are seeing a ‘skills mismatch’ between professionals and organizations – and that’s because skills and jobs are changing so quickly.”
- Erin Scruggs, LinkedIn
Like influencers need to diversify platforms, workers need to seriously consider diversifying their skill sets. This isn’t just to stay competitive in the job market if you happen to get laid off. It's also about giving yourself better options to look for new work if you find yourself in a two-hour commute due to a return-to-office mandate.
If you love the organization you work for, diversifying your skill set can make you more valuable within the organization as well as in the open market.
Just to be clear, I’m not talking about upskilling in your current area of expertise. A director of marketing can upskill to become the VP of marketing. Or that same director of marketing can build diverse skills in the areas of AI technology or sustainability.
Not only could these diverse skills enhance their current role, but further building these skills could give the director options to jump into full-time work in these areas. They could also use their background in marketing to bring expertise that others may not currently have. A diverse knowledge base can open up more creative solutions in thier work.
In his book Mastery, Robert Greene raises the topic of how historical and contemporary figures achieve mastery in their respective fields. He outlines the process of learning and skill-building as the foundation for achieving greatness. He quotes in his book, "The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways."
"The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways."
- Robert Greene
Greene goes on to emphasize that mastery is not an inherent talent but a combination of deliberate practice, dedication, and the development of multiple skills.
This concept isn’t entirely new. But with the current economy, job market, and political climate’s influence on the workforce, it’s becoming more apparent that we need a strategic approach to diversifying our skills.
How Can We Strategically Choose a New Skill?
We can always blindly pick a new skill to learn, but the best strategy involves following one of these methods:
The best skills will encompass 2–3 of these areas. But it's not all about building a new skill directly. We can leverage our current skills in new ways to open new possibilities and opportunities.
Using our current skills in new environments can lead to building professional experience and acumen that we didn’t have previously. An example of this would be volunteering for a cross-functional project at work. For example, a procurement professional can work with IT to onboard a new digital purchasing platform.
The procurement professional can do more than just give specific input about buying practices. They could take the opportunity to learn the importance of data security and how IT ensures confidential information is protected. Spending 6–12 months together on a cross-functional project can lead to new skills being built on both sides.
The World Economic Forum Confirms Skills Gap
Earlier this year, the World Economic Forum released its 2025 Future of Work Report. Several sections take aim at the skills gap organizations and job seekers alike are facing. Here are a few summaries from the report to take note of:
These statistics present contrasting points that are two sides of the same coin. The skills gap in the current workforce may be very real, but it does create a significant opportunity.
If you're willing and determined not just to upskill in your current area of expertise but diversify your skills, you will become a valuable asset in a job market that’s currently primed for more highly skilled talent.
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