Phiradet Bangcharoensap

Machine Learning Engineer, Computer Science

What made you decide to join TikTok?

As someone who's passionate about creating an impact on a global level, TikTok presented itself as an ideal workplace for me. The platform's reach extends to over 1 billion users worldwide, presenting a unique opportunity to contribute to a massive and diverse audience. TikTok's also the perfect place to collaborate alongside some incredibly talented professionals, which means I have the opportunity to grow and develop my skills in new and exciting ways.

Share some insight into your current role at TikTok:

I am part of the Business Integrity team at TikTok. Our mission is all about building trusted and safe connections between people, business, and TikTok. Specifically, my role is focused on developing machine learning models to predict and mitigate potential risks to TikTok's monetization platform. It's an exciting challenge because we're talking about the models for understanding all aspects of content, including text, images, and audio. From designing the system to building and deploying the models, each member oversees every step of the process to make sure their models run smoothly. We're always on the front lines of making TikTok's monetization platform the safest it can be through machine learning.

What does your day at TikTok look like?

At TikTok, we have pretty flexible working hours. One thing that's cool about our team is that we have members based in several locations, not just in Singapore. We use messaging as the main communication channel, so the first thing I do is check important messages and system alerts. Then, I dive into my development work, which could involve anything such as data collection, data analysis, model training, service deployment, and maintenance. At lunch, I enjoy a (free!) meal with my colleagues, and sometimes I even take a quick power nap to recharge. Each week, we have a team meeting to share progress and plan for the week ahead. We also have a weekly paper reading session where we upskill our technical knowledge.

What do you love most about your job?

What I love most about my job is the challenging nature of the problems we tackle on a daily basis. As part of a team that's dedicated to developing state-of-the-art machine learning models that can detect potential risks in monetization platforms, we're constantly pushing ourselves to stay one step ahead of the curve. Our work is constantly evolving as risks become increasingly complex over time. I find it incredibly rewarding to collaborate with a team of experts from various fields and constantly apply cutting-edge techniques to address these challenges.

What is your favourite part about the culture at TikTok?

My favourite aspect of TikTok's culture is the emphasis on "Grow Together," a key value that promotes collaboration, continuous learning, pushing boundaries, and mutual growth. This culture is supported by a wealth of knowledge sharing opportunities, including lectures, meetings, and documentation. Whenever I encounter obstacles, I can quickly seek help from colleagues both within and outside of my team, which fosters a supportive and collaborative work environment.

How does TikTok support your career growth and aspiration?

We offer mentorship programs that pair new joiners with experienced members who can provide guidance and support. The program is designed to support employees to develop new skills, expand their networks, and gain exposure to different areas of the company. Additionally, we host several seminars, lectures, and paper reading sessions to share and discuss cutting-edge machine learning which provides us with opportunities to stay up-to-date on the latest industry trends and advancements.

What tips do you have for prospective graduates who are in the process of submitting their application or even going through the interview process.

My first tip would be not to hesitate to apply for a position even if you don't meet all the requirements listed in the job description, especially for early-career roles. You can demonstrate your potential to bridge any gaps in your skills or experience. From a technical standpoint, I recommend taking time to review the fundamental theories behind the machine learning techniques you have been using. While high-level libraries simplify the process of developing machine learning models, it is essential to understand how they work to efficiently diagnose and address issues in a real-world environment. Having a solid understanding of the underlying principles will aid in diagnosing and resolving complex problems.

Why Join TikTok?

You'll have the opportunity to learn and work alongside talented and experienced people. You'll gain insight into how we've created a product that's loved by over 1 billion users worldwide and is consistently shaping the social media landscape.

Bryan Chew

Backend Software Engineer, Computer Science

What made you decide to join TikTok?

TikTok's position as tech giant, and the chance to be able to build things with smart and amazing people from many backgrounds.

Share some insight into your current role at TikTok:

I work in the Global Payments team which provides payment capability to and from users on TikTok as well as many other Bytedance products.

What does your day at TikTok look like?

Work hours are pretty flexible. When arriving at the office, I'd get a drink from the pantry and settle in to review the messages that I'd received the day before, review what needs to be done, and get started on the tasks at hand. If there's a team standup meeting, we'd meet to discuss our progress on our current tasks and align on new tasks. Daily tasks usually involve writing code for new features/fixes, writing tests for them, and running integration tests in our offline environment. Weekly tasks, things that occur once or twice a week, are tasks like deployments, writing design documents, interviewing candidates, and having 1:1 meetings with colleagues.

What do you love most about your job?

The people I work with! TikTok attracts many brilliant people with whom I am honored to work alongside.

What is your favourite part about the culture at TikTok?

The culture at TikTok encourages individuality as well as group collaboration. We are able to work freely on our task, and are given the time to propose and work on new and interesting things for our team. But at the same time, everyone communicates closely to integrate our ideas and solve problems together.

How does TikTok support your career growth and aspiration?

I have frequent 1:1 meetings with senior engineers in my team to align with the things I'm doing, the team's direction, and what I need to be doing in order to fulfill my current role's expectations and grow. We also have a quarterly key results system to keep track of your and your peers accomplishments and ongoing projects.

What tips do you have for prospective graduates who are in the process of submitting their application or even going through the interview process.

Practice and familiarize yourself with programming questions from LeetCode, HackerRank, etc. Revising basic theory concepts about OS, networking, and databases may be useful as well depending on which team and role you are interviewing for.

Why Join Us?

You'll get to work at a company that embodies its culture, while solving problems and growing your career with lots of incredible people!

Ju Wey Tan

Frontend Software Engineer, Computer Science

What made you decide to join TikTok?

I love using TikTok and wanted to be a part of a company that brings joy to so many people around the world.

Share some insight into your current role at TikTok:

I am part of the team responsible for the architecture of automation testing in TikTok. We provide Quality Assurance Engineers with tools for automated testing so that we can reduce the amount of problems that happen on the TikTok app in real-time.

What does your day at TikTok look like?

On the days that I work from the office, my team always gets a cup of coffee from the office barista first. After getting a cup of coffee and catching up with my team, I sit down to review the previous work day's work, organise today's work, and look into my schedule for the day. I then work on completing any unfinished tasks from the previous work day. We get our catered lunch at 11:30am, and eat together as a team. At 1pm, I get post lunch coffee with my team, and then get back to work.

What do you love most about your job?

I love the opportunities given by TikTok to learn, grow, and also the friendships I have with my team.

What is your favourite part about the culture at TikTok?

We have a lot of freedom with how we manage our time and complete our work, as long as it's done. I am given a lot of trust and autonomy with my work, and it gives me a huge amount of motivation to do my best and produce work that I can be proud of.

How does TikTok support your career growth and aspiration?

All employees start out with a mentor, who guides us in the business of TikTok, the internal workings, and any other question we have. We are also not limited to just our mentors, as we have many more senior engineers who are happy to answer our questions. As such, we are given a lot of support to improve our skills for our own career growth.

What tips do you have for prospective graduates who are in the process of submitting their application or even going through the interview process.

Grind coding questions on leetcode or any other similar platforms, get familiar with the interview process, practice, and be confident.

Why Join Us?

Join the fastest growing company at the forefront of social media with over 1 billion global monthly active users.

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