I applied online. The process took 5 days. I interviewed at TikTok (Sunnyvale, CA) in Sep 2023
Interview
The recruiter sent you several job postings in your similar realm. Then, the person scheduled two interviews back-to-back together. If you failed the first interview, the second one would be automatically cancelled. Otherwise, you can move to the third round or panel. Most interviews were from China teams, so the time can be very late in US.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The interviewers just ask some random questions, basically my day-to-day duty. They also ask how should I deal with engineers who are not willing to contribute or decline Product manager's idea.
Went through a phone screening a few months ago. Had a phone call and spent about 20 minutes chatting about the role. I was coming from an industry that I think they were hoping to expand on and some of the questions felt like a little bit of too much information about current work in progress. Also, I thought I recalled the job noting that it was remote but they were looking for someone to live in their area (which I was no where near).
Lastly, when they moved on for the role, I had asked if there was any opportunity for interview feedback (so I had some idea for where I didn't meet the mark or if it was more related to location), they said they could not share any details. So that was a bit disappointing.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at TikTok (San Francisco, CA) in Nov 2023
Interview
Recruiter: A+
Hiring team: D- (lack personality)
Talent acquisition team is great, everyone who follows is not.
Recruiter offered tips for the interviewing process. You're told to be your genuine self, using star method to answer questions, know how to answer "why do you want to work there", etc. The recruiters want to set you up for success.
Second person was someone who would be a colleague. No personality whatsoever. I tried to be friendly and engaging but received dry and uninterested responses. From what I gathered, the teams are stretched thin, there's a lot to learn on their end for the platform to succeed.
Third Person was the hiring manager. The second person made more sense at this point. Uninterested, could not get off the call any faster. It really felt like a team of people who are doing what they can to get the job done but have no passion for the product they're working on.