For this week’s MVP, we’re chatting with TikTok influencer and human resources expert Emily Durham.

How Canadian HR influencer Emily Durham approaches burnout and risk when it comes to work and her social following.

By Rosemary Counter

Last year, Toronto-based HR professional Emily Durham did the thing that most of us only dream of: After 10 years in the corporate world, she walked away from the office grind to make a go full-time on social media. Granted, the 30-year-old—known on TikTok and other platforms as @emily.the.recruiter—already had a few years of good online luck and an audience in the millions (a good reason to go), but she also loved her job and even her boss (a great reason to stay). How and why did she decide to take the plunge? In this week’s MVP, we chat with the influencer about boundaries and burnout, reinvention for the risk adverse and taking her own career advice. 

Most people’s quitting stories involve jobs they hate, but not yours? How’d you get there? 

The TL;DR version goes like this: I was studying HR at York University and thought I wanted to get into employment law. I landed an internship at the Bank of Montreal in the instructional design space, where I networked with folks in recruitment—that’s really what got my wheels turning. Recruitment is so personal, and I love the opportunity to connect people to work that actually means something to them. 

I moved to Intuit to lead their early careers recruitment program. In tech, people come from all different backgrounds and many are self-taught, so there are differences in access to career information. They may not understand how to negotiate. Someone could be an incredible engineer but ask them why they want to work here and they’ll say something like, “What do you mean? Because you’re hiring.” 

Not knowing how to play the HR game largely impacts women, especially women of colour—who tend not to have access to career mentors. This really stressed me out. 

So you decided you had to do something. But what? 

In 2020, I posted a single podcast episode dedicated to helping folks prep for interviews. The intention was not to start a social media career; it was literally because I didn’t have enough time to prepare all the people I wanted to for their interviews. It went viral and kinda spiralled into this big beautiful thing. I balanced my corporate job with content creation for about five years. I became @emily.the.recruiter on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, plus my podcast, and now I have a book coming out with Penguin in just a few short months. 

That’s… a lot. Why did you finally decide to quit your day job?  

I’m an HR girl at my core, and I’m very risk averse. Quitting was a terrifying decision because I loved my job and I loved the work I did. My boss was the most incredible leader I’ve ever had. But I was burnt out—even though I would go online to talk about how to avoid burnout. I was preaching about the importance of boundary-setting, and making an exception of myself wasn’t something that felt authentic. 

And frankly, I felt awful physically. I was working crazy hours. Something had to give, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to be my business. 

Was there a moment that convinced you that being an influencer might actually work out? 

Within a couple of days of posting my first podcast episode, it was one of the top trending careers podcasts in Canada and the U.S. That was the catalyst for me to post next on Instagram and TikTok. I thought, this first video is either going to go viral or it’s not. And if it doesn’t, I’m taking it as a sign that this is silly. 

They both turned out pretty good. And, in just shy of six months, I had gone from zero to a hundred thousand followers. So, no, I don’t think I had a singular moment. It was just suddenly the thing I was doing, and it took off.  

Rosemary Counter is a Toronto-based writer and journalist whose reporting and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Guardian and others.

Read more from this issue of The Get:

1. True or false: You’ll save more when you earn more
2. Will my own personal debt burden my new spouse?
3. The sober saver trend: How much drinking can cost you
4. Do you pay yourself first?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Get is owned by Neo Financial, and the content it produces is for informational purposes. Any views expressed are those of the individual author and/or of The Get editorial team., not of Neo Financial or any of its partners or affiliates. The content is not meant to replace professional financial advice, and it should not be the sole source for making any financial decisions. Always do your due diligence before deciding what to do with your money. Read The Get’s editorial mandate.