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.
total 3 rounds, recruiter call, then
1. HM round, 2. Skip manager,3. Peer
second round get rescheduled and fast response.
most of them speak mandarin during interview
including BQ and case study.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How would you reduce false positives in our content moderation system?
They arranged 3 rounds of interviews with all team members, not the hiring manager. I felt like it was not the typical process because one of them said they were changing the direction of this role.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
A really technical case and how to solve the pain point.
There are in total 4rounds including 2 rounds with senior peers and 1 round with +1 and round with HR, not that difficult. But I think the experience match is most important……..