I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at TikTok
Interview
Seriously THE WORST interview experience and I’ve been in tech for 15 years. Disorganized from the beginning and spirals.
Got a reach out from a recruiter to schedule a phone screen. A couple of flags- she was upfront that they will never give you a salary range until the end of the process; So if you say it’s negotiable to test the waters- it’s unacceptable to them.
Second and biggest red flag- she repeatedly made the mistake of what position I applied for. Anyways- she schedules me for interviews and it gets worse. I gave her three weeks notice of general availability and she sets some dates and times in stone which I take off for once she confirms they work, but never sends me a zoom link or information about where the interview will take place. She takes a week to respond- and it’s me literally chasing her to follow up because I never received the interview zoom links or info.
The day of the interview I reach out again and she says that the interview slot is no longer available and to give her more time options. I tell her I have a confirmation and took off work for it because it was three interviews she blocked for. She ghosts that day even though I responded within 3 minutes, but she responds the NEXT day apologizing saying that she will conduct one of the three interviews on her managers behalf (uhh weird right?) . So we do, and she gives me 30 minutes notice that another manager wants an interview so I do it.
I received positive feedback from both interviews and she said there was more interviews as the next step. I gave her my general availability again- and she ghosted for two weeks. I don’t know why I bothered, but I reached out to confirm the interview dates and times- she apologized and confirmed again with who I would be doing the interviews with and the times (Again no zoom links). I ask her again if this interview is set and she says yes. And to no surprise, day of the interview, she gave me a cancellation notice 1 hour before the interviews. She messages me apologizing again saying they weren’t confirmed. I send her a message saying I have all the confirmation, and she asks for my availability again.
As you can imagine, I said no thank you.
Zero courtesy and respect for the interviewees time, so I can’t imagine what it would be like to waste any of my time further.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at TikTok (Singapur) in Oct 2021
Interview
Unpleasant interviewer, seemed very uninterested. I was asked a lot of questions about projects which weren't even related to the job I was applying for. I didn't get a chance to talk about my more relevant experiences. Also the interviewer had poor communication skills and I had to repeat myself multiple times to convey what I was saying
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at TikTok in Jan 2020
Interview
I first met the team at a happy hour event in SF. I was definitely a little thrown off by the culture of the team, with managers coming around with shot trays, trying to get everyone to take shots with them. Very little talk about what it's like to work at TikTok, pretty much just a party.
I first had a 30 minute chat with the recruiter. Then I had a 45 minute first round interview with an IC PM. Pretty standard, nothing really revealing (positively or negatively) about the company or team, but the PM who interviewed me seemed like a nice, smart guy. (I only interacted with men during this entire process.)
Then I had a second round interview with the head of product. Admittedly, I did not do well in this interview, and if I were them, I would have stopped the process with me as well, but his answers to my questions are worth mentioning.
I asked about the culture of the team. He talked about how he wants his team to be intense and frugal like Amazon (his former company) and that some people on the team are too used to the pat-on-the-back culture of places like Google and their perspectives need to change.
I asked about how TikTok considered the impact they have on teenagers, and he said "Well we let them know if they've been on the app for too long" referring to a message that pops up after 2 hours of scrolling.
I then asked about career development and mentorship. As someone relatively early in my career who has benefited greatly from mentorship in past roles, this was important. He told me that people just need to crush projects and be autonomous. Overall, I received pretty terse answers.
For some people, these answers may be okay. For others, they may not be, but I personally didn't get a good vibe for me personally (nor did they choose to advance me).
As an aside, recruiting was quite slow moving things along from interview to interview. 3 weeks would go by in between interviews.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
If I were in charge of this new initiative for TikTok (something off their roadmap), what would I do?
Tell me about a product you like, how would you improve it, and why?