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I applied for a Frontend Engineer Intern position at TikTok (ByteDance) in China. I received calls from three different recruiters within a month after applying through a referral.
The first recruiter asked if I could speak Mandarin, as she was not fluent in English. We agreed to communicate via email, but she ghosted me after suggesting I connect via WeChat.
The second recruiter was able to speak English but also suggested using WeChat. I contacted a senior who worked at ByteDance and he suggested using Lark, an internal tool. However, the recruiter informed me that they were not sponsoring visas for students outside of China and remote work was not possible.
The third recruiter called a week later. I told him I was an international student and would only be able to interview if they sponsored a visa. He said he would wait for the hiring manager's approval. After a few days, I received a call saying the manager had agreed to sponsor a visa and provide relocation if I passed all the interviews.
I then researched whether it was possible to travel to China given the current situation between India and China. I realized I had forgotten to mention I was from India and contacted the recruiter to confirm if they could sponsor a visa from India. Unfortunately, they had to cancel the interview schedule because the hiring manager said it was difficult to travel to China from India at the moment.
Although the interview was canceled, I was able to learn about the interview process for an internship position at ByteDance. There were three rounds:
I applied to China because Frontend intern roles were only available in China. I found several referral links for ByteDance on LinkedIn. Referrals are easy to get for ByteDance.
Takeaways: It is difficult to get a visa to work at ByteDance in China from India. They do not offer remote jobs. If you are interested in working at ByteDance, apply through referrals for other locations. You will likely receive a call within a week of applying.