Pros
Standard tech company benefits, high cash compensation, free food and snacks, you get to meet some really interesting people. Overall, I would say there's a lot of benefits in the short term, and TikTok is a great launching point for your career in the long run. But it's important to leave when the time is right because this place will chew you up and spit you out.
Cons
chinese management is worse than you think. so much red tape - hard to get anything done. There's some really dumb policies that really should not be around in non-china regions. Everything is micromanaged and everything goes up to china leadership for approval. Why even have regional managers or leaders if you won't delegate responsibilities to us? It feels so much like I was hired to do their paperwork. Nothing you do feels like you're actually making an impact and improving workflow. The company is already in the corporate bloat stage, but it's not in non-china regions - it starts in China. There's a clear difference in how the management treats and deals with infractions from Chinese people vs non-chinese people. (Please note: this is not to say I agree with sinophobia at ALL! It's more about management having an issue with conducting business appropriately in non-china regions.) I have met wonderful and amazing colleagues in both china and non-china regions, but I really feel like leadership is just not where it needs to be. Non-China regions cannot make decisions independently without approvals, and not all strategies given to us from China apply here. It is frustrating that when we ask for things to happen to make work better in non-china regional offices, we are ignored and told to get in line, or else. This is not a place you want to work long term. It looks great on your resume, and it makes for fantastic stories when you're commiserating over the misery that is this capitalistic hellhole, but it's not a place where you can grow and actually have a life outside of work. I am not marking it as a 1-star even though I desperately want to because hey, the money was good. The benefits were actually really great, especially if you weren't an engineer. There is a LOT of great things going for TikTok, and I sincerely hope it gets better for us here. But this place makes me want to, as the kids say it, unalive myself 80% of the time. So, there you go.