TikTok Software Engineer

So now you've got the compensation data, are you ready to negotiate? Not quite.

First off, comp data is constantly being updated as companies push to remain competitive. This is particularly true for companies like TikTok which are in a high-growth phase. Early 2022 numbers are already coming in higher than the 2021 numbers listed above, and it’s critical to know the full range for each component to optimize your negotiation. But even more than that, many people think knowing the compensation data is the most important part of a negotiation, but it’s not. You can go tell your Bytedance recruiter that you read online that top of band is $X and that you want that number, but in 90% of cases that won’t work. So what will?

Companies negotiate when they believe you won’t accept their offer. But, since you just finished a long and arduous interview process with them, they know you are likely to accept the job unless you have higher competing offers from other great companies.

This means you need to create leverage and make it believable that you are considering other options but would prefer TikTok if the compensation is comparable. This sounds easy but quickly becomes challenging if you don’t have other offers or if your other offers aren’t higher than the top of band comp numbers you are targeting.

Even if you are in a perfect situation where you have a competing offer with comp just slightly higher than the top of band numbers you are targeting at TikTok, the negotiation can still get complicated. TikTok is known to be a particularly hard company to negotiate with as recruiters will often try to trick candidates. We've seen many TikTok recruiters refuse to disclose levels (making it very hard to set anchor numbers), set exploding offer deadlines, and even go so far as to change numbers that have already been agreed on. You need to be prepared for these tactics if you want a shot at securing a top of band offer. Negotiating is fundamentally a game of experience and data, and you should think about these large corporations as a system where a series of inputs can be reliably turned into a specific output, if you can perfectly setup the inputs.