Don't work here if you are an Engineer and not a Chinese speaker - Software Engineer ByteDance Employee Review

1.0
28 Jun 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Smart coworkers, lunch and dinner provided

Cons

- Work-life balance is awful. Lots of impromptu meetings on the weekends with coworkers in China - Pretty much all major business decisions take place at the Chinese HQ, and these meetings are conducted in Chinese. You will feel very disconnected from the product and culture of the company if you are not a Chinese-speaker. - Little-to-no formal code review process; the company is more focused on short-term results than long-term maintenance. Bugs everywhere on the development pipeline with little documentation for them. They are reported through group chat and will only be addressed once coworkers in China have time on their hands (very rare). - Compensation isn't on-par with the rest of Silicon Valley

Explore other reviews about ByteDance

5.0
18 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

good culture, great food, high pay, good autonomy

Cons

WLB could be hard but highly team dependent

3.0
4 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Best in market compensation packages

Cons

Commerce team reports to China, local leaders pushed out. Corrupt review practices.

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