Don't work here if you value your sanity - Product Manager TikTok Employee Review

1.0
Nov 30, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pay can be good, its partly because they're having a hard time hiring because of their work life balance reputation(all true). People do not plan on staying long

Cons

1. Don't work here if you don't speak Mandarin. Period, you can't function. 2. Most of leadership and team are in China. Late meetings every night are required if you want to get anything done. 3. Chinese team do not understand American consumers or work culture. Everything is based on metrics. Short term thinking. 4. No on boarding. You are expected to know everything after a couple weeks and expectations are crazy. They get away with it in China because of the job market there. 5. You will have no life but you will learn a lot and bring that experience to your next, better job.

Explore other reviews about TikTok

2.0
Jun 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pay is level with industry and actual work is somewhat interesting depending on the team you're on

Cons

In my experience, career growth can feel very limited if you are not part of the dominant internal language and cultural network. A significant amount of important context, communication, and decision-making happens in Chinese, which can make non-Chinese-speaking employees feel excluded from key conversations and promotion opportunities. The environment did not feel as inclusive as it should be for a global company. Advancement often felt less tied to performance and more tied to whether you were connected to the right groups or able to operate fluently within the Chinese-speaking side of the organization. Over time, it felt like non-Chinese-speaking employees had fewer long-term career paths and were at risk of being replaced by people who could better fit that internal operating model. Things also move very slowly because employees are often given access only to the bare minimum needed to do their jobs. There is a heavy push toward using AI tools, but in practice it can make it harder to get help from real people. Instead of getting quick support, you often have to spend time going through AI bots or internal tools before getting a useful answer.

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