* TikTok has emerged this year as one of the buzziest companies in tech.
* The ByteDance-owned company is scaling up its hiring in the US, with hundreds of current job openings for roles in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Austin, and Chicago.
* Business Insider spoke to Kate Barney, the company's head of HR for TikTok America's global business solutions team, to learn more about how to get noticed by TikTok recruiters and land an interview at the company.
* Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
TikTok has captured the attention of consumers (and marketers) around the world this year, with over 2 billion downloads globally.
As its user base has grown, so too has interest in working at the tech company. But for TikTok job applicants, it can sometimes be unclear how to stand out.
Kate Barney, the company's head of HR for its global business solutions team, said there are a few different ways that applicants can increase their chances of getting noticed by TikTok recruiters.
"The traditional way to stand out is someone who has strong experience in what they're applying for," Barney told Business Insider. "But also someone who's very passionate about TikTok. We're looking for people to grow with the company, so someone who can talk to us about their favorite parts of the product, the ins and outs, what they would change if they were given the opportunity."
While having a tech background or previous work experience definitely helps for getting noticed by recruiters, the company said it's also open to hiring newcomers to the industry.
"We are looking for people of all experience levels, so no one has to come in and be the expert," Barney said. "Even if you are a fresh graduate or someone who has 20, 30 years of experience, you can show your ability to be entrepreneurial or making an impact in many ways. Even outside of just professionalism, you can have impact in your community. You can be a real go-getter amongst your peers, whether that's in service, or through college groups."
"We're looking for people who have gone above and beyond to build something new because we are very much in a building phase right now," she added.
Regardless of an applicant's experience level, one of the first things TikTok's recruiting team screens for is whether they have carefully read through a job description, Barney said.
"I think as a tip for candidates, it's really to do their homework," she said. "We post the roles that are open, so read that role that you're applying to, and see if you can find anybody else on LinkedIn or anywhere who's doing that role now, and ask them about their experience."
Proactively reaching out to current employees through LinkedIn is one way to demonstrate strong interest in a role at TikTok. But some job applicants have taken it much further.
One recent hire who applied for a sales planner position in the company's Austin office posted a video version of her resume on TikTok that went viral and ended up on the "For You" page — the app's content discovery section — of a TikTok HR employee in Chicago. The employee sent the video over to the recruiting team and eventually the hiring manager at the office where she had applied.
"I think what was so amazing about this video was that it really showed somebody who was passionate who's going to go above and beyond," Barney said. "For a sales organization, this is putting yourself out there. This is someone who is very much a self-starter, and who's very imaginative and creative."
"She applied first too," Barney noted. "She did all the normal steps as well. It didn't feel like it was just kind of a quick gimmick."
While TikTok said it doesn't expect all prospective employees to post viral application videos, downloading the app and testing it out before an interview is a baseline requirement.
"If you're not going to make a video, at least have proven that you've watched a few and you know what it is," Barney said. "Figure out what's trending that week. You might not need to know the Toosie Slide, but at least figure out what makes a TikTok video and why they are so fun and joyful."
Click here to read a complete breakdown of how TikTok is adjusting its hiring process during the pandemic, what the company looks for in new hires, and mistakes to avoid once you land an interview.
And for more stories on how to get hired at major tech companies, read these other BI Prime articles:
* The ultimate guide to getting a job at Netflix. We talked to its head of recruiting, former employees, and staffing experts to learn exactly what it takes to get hired in 2020.: Everything you need to know about the hiring process at Netflix, from its top recruiter's favorite interview question to how to prep.
* Hulu's head of HR explains exactly what it takes to get a job at the streaming TV company in 2020: Hulu's top HR exec shares her best tips for getting hired at the streaming company in 2020, and the departments it's staffing up.
* PayPal is hiring for hundreds of jobs amid the coronavirus slowdown. A hiring executive there lays out the exact skills you need to nail an interview.: PayPal is one of tech's most sought-after employers, and it has hundreds of job openings, including in software, product, communications, and sales.
* A senior director at Google says she doesn't hire people who act like 'rock stars' and aren't able to back the claim up. Here are 3 qualities she looks for instead.: The term is popping up in more and more job descriptions, but one Google director is not at all interested in hiring "rock stars."
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