Worst company I've ever worked for. Avoid if you can. - Anonymous employee ByteDance Employee Review

1.0
Mar 31, 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-Free food -Nice office -Friendly US coworkers

Cons

-The most unorganized, unprofessional company I've even been associated with. -No room for growth unless you're Chinese/based in China. All decision makers/bosses are based in Beijing and due to the time difference most decisions are made overnight while you're unable to offer your input. -Most corporate communication is in Chinese so oftentimes you feel left out of important companywide information. -The company has no strategy behind any of their decisions or at least it's kept secret and not communicated outside of upper management -Young and inexperienced managers who have no idea what it's like to manage anyone and offer very little direction while setting unrealistic goals and setting employees up for failure (hitting 60% of your OKRs is essentially passing) -Very rare to get a promotion and oftentimes you're just shuffled around within the company moving from product to product and don't have any say in the products you work on -Upper management refuses to listen to any feedback or criticism. Anyone I know who has tried has been let go from the company. -Chinese work culture is terrible working 12+ hours/day and 6 days/week, so US employees feel pressure to be "always on" and responsive at all hours of the day often responding to messages in the middle of the night -The company relies too heavily on their AI and algorithms that never seem to work -Non-existant HR to report complaints to

avatar
ByteDance Response
7y
Thank you for your feedback. ByteDance strives to be a truly international company so we apologize for your experience. If you would like to discuss these issues in greater detail, please feel free to contact us at global-oc@bytedance.com

Explore other reviews about ByteDance

5.0
Apr 23, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great job, diversity culture, good colleague

Cons

nothing need to cmt, everything is fine

3.0
May 15, 2026
Anonymous intern
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good benefits for interns and employees, including free meals and housing subsidies. Large-scale platform with opportunities to work on impactful projects and gain experience that looks strong on a resume. Fast-paced environment with exposure to major digital marketing and content operations workflows.

Cons

Work-life balance can be challenging depending on the team. Overtime is relatively common, and some teams may have issues with micromanagement or unclear boundaries around working hours. Communication and management styles can vary significantly across departments.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All