If you’ve landed a job offer at TikTok, congratulations! Receiving an offer from a large tech company such as ByteDance is a great accomplishment. However, before you go ahead and accept that offer, you should consider negotiating your compensation package.

We understand that negotiating a job offer can seem intimidating; but the truth is that TikTok is open to negotiate. In fact, we have helped our clients receive more compensation at TikTok by using our proven salary negotiation strategies.

Despite being a relatively young tech company, Bytedance careers offer compensation and perks that are comparable to most other tech companies. Their compensation for software engineers, data scientists, product managers, and many business-based roles are still incredibly competitive. So even though TikTok is a top tech employer, we want you to know that negotiating your job offer with them is possible—meaning there is an opportunity to negotiate for the compensation you rightly deserve.

In the following article, we will share with you our top salary negotiation tips to help prepare you to negotiate a TikTok job offer with confidence and success.

Don’t want to navigate the salary negotiation process alone? We have additional resources to help guide you through the Bytedance job offer negotiation process.

Our coaches will show you how to negotiate a TikTok job offer, reach out to Our Team and we’ll guide you through your TikTok salary negotiation.

Use our Salary Negotiation Templates or take our Salary Negotiation Courses and receive step-by-step advice, downloadable phone scripts, and email templates for your TikTok job offer negotiation.

Understanding the Compensation Components of a TikTok Job Offer

Even though TikTok’s benefits and compensation are comparable to other tech companies, they still have a few key differences. Understanding the features of each of these components is the first step in preparing for your ByteDance salary negotiation. By understanding each of these TikTok salary components, you’ll know how to calculate your total compensation (your total annual take home pay) accurately. Having a firm grasp on these components also means you’ll be able to negotiate as many of them as possible.

When it comes to Bytedance job offers, most people just think about what base salary is being offered and don’t consider the other parts of the compensation package. However, TikTok’s compensation package includes a performance bonus, initial equity grant (no equity refreshers), a sign-on bonus, and many other valuable benefits in addition to a generous base salary. Here’s an example of what the total compensation of a TikTok software engineer salary may look like in their initial offer:

TikTok Software Engineer Salary

Now, let’s take a closer look at these different TikTok compensation components.

TikTok Base Salary

The first part of your TikTok job offer is your base salary, which is the guaranteed fixed pay you receive for the work you do. The only time your TikTok base salary changes is if you receive merit increases or a promotion; otherwise, your base salary will always stay the same.

Like most companies, TikTok has set salary ranges for each of their job roles and these ranges have preset minimum and maximum amounts associated with them. For example, the salary range for a TikTok software engineer would most likely differ from the salary range for a TikTok product manager or data scientist.

Why do these pay bands matter? They are important because the TikTok base salary you receive in your initial offer may be at the lower end of that pay range. So, if you know what the salary range for your specific role is, you’ll know that you can negotiate for a higher offer.

TikTok Yearly Performance Bonus

The next component of your TikTok compensation package is your yearly performance bonus, which TikTok provides as an annual target bonus. An annual target bonus is a percentage of your base salary that is often based on both personal and company performance. However, the annual bonus at TikTok is around 25% of your base salary for most roles. This bonus philosophy differs slightly compared to what you’d receive at companies like Salesforce or Meta where most roles and levels have different target bonus percentages associated with them.

While your annual performance bonus isn’t negotiable, it is still dependent on your base salary. So if you can successfully negotiate for a higher TikTok base salary, your TikTok performance bonus will also be higher.

TikTok Initial Equity Package

The next part of a TikTok job offer is the equity package. Unlike the yearly performance bonus, this component is fully negotiable. In fact, equity packages are where our clients have made some of the biggest advancements in their compensation packages when we guided them through their salary negotiation with TikTok.

However, there are a few aspects of the equity package at TikTok that differ from other companies.

The first thing to highlight is that ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company) is still a private company. This means you will be forced to wait for the tech behemoth to go public before you can sell unless they offer any internal buyback programs—which they have done in the past. The initial equity grant will come in the form of restricted stock units (RSUs) that represent actual ownership of stock (i.e., you will receive shares of ByteDance stock) when the stock vest. This is a different equity model compared to what you’d see at most non-public companies where they typically offer stock options that you need to exercise to own.

Another item to note is that your TikTok RSUs will have a much different vesting schedule compared to most tech companies. The TikTok RSUs have a four-year vesting schedule with 20% vesting on your first anniversary, 25% on your second and third anniversary, and the final 30% on your fourth anniversary. This is a different vesting schedule compared to Apple or Microsoft where you’d see equal percentages of your equity vesting each year, and it more closely mirrors the equity schedule that you’d find in a job offer with Amazon but without Amazon’s additional sign-on bonus in year two.

The last nuance you should be aware of is that there will be no TikTok equity refresh like that which is found at most other large tech companies that provide equity to employees. While this might not be a deal breaker for most, it is a compensation component that may weigh in your decision of staying past the initial TikTok stock grant.

Here’s something important to remember: Even though TikTok’s RSUs can be an extremely valuable form of compensation, that’s only if they do go public and you can sell the equity at some point. Otherwise, you’re stuck holding the RSUs until there is a liquidity event.

TikTok Sign-On Bonus

The next compensation component to consider is the TikTok sign-on bonus. Sign-on bonuses are offered by most companies as an incentive to join and to cover any lost bonuses or unvested equity that might be lost at your current company. However, TikTok has pulled back on offering these bonuses, so you typically have to negotiate with them to receive one. Fortunately, our clients have had success securing TikTok signing bonuses and we believe they’re a benefit worth asking for multiple times.

A ByteDance sign-on bonus is paid in a lump sum at the beginning of your first year of employment, but if you leave the company before the end of that year, you have to pay it back. However, don’t let that caveat deter you from negotiating this benefit.

TikTok STOCK REFRESHER

TikTok only offers an equity refresher (more stock) after your initial equity grant is fully vested (i.e., after the first four years at TikTok). This is a different philosophy compared to other tech companies, like Adobe, where you would get an equity refresh annually.

While the TikTok equity refresher is an important component of your future total compensation, we don’t include it in our initial total compensation calculation because you won’t know the exact details until further into your career at TikTok.

Benefits and Perks at TikTok

As part of your compensation package, you’ll receive market leading benefits and perks at TikTok which include health, retirement, and other core benefits that you’d expect from a newer tech company. While these benefits and perks are usually non-negotiable for a company like ByteDance, we still suggest digging into them some when completing your due diligence on the offer.

Five Key Steps to Negotiate a TikTok Job Offer

Negotiating a TikTok job offer requires a slightly different approach than how you might negotiate a Google job offer or negotiate a Bloomberg job offer. It’s critical that you understand the ins and outs of this approach before you start negotiating.

One of the biggest mistakes you could make is starting the negotiation process before you have an offer in hand. Like other companies, TikTok is known to pry about your salary expectations and you don’t want to jeopardize your chances of receiving a strong Bytedance job offer by negotiating too early. You’ll always have more leverage once the hiring team has chosen you as the ideal candidate for the role and has provided you with an offer.

We have worked with hundreds of clients on their salary negotiations over the years and through these experiences we have identified five key steps for successful negotiations. We have outlined each of these steps below to help you navigate your TikTok salary negotiation. If you’d rather receive individual advice instead, reach out to our team for a Consultation on your upcoming salary negotiation with TikTok so that we can guide you through the process.

1) Understand the Components of Your TikTok Job Offer

This first step in negotiating your TikTok job offer should be simple since we’ve gone over it already. As a reminder, make sure that you understand the total compensation of your TikTok job offer before trying to negotiate your salary. If you have specific questions or need more clarity on the various aspects of your job offer, feel free to reach out to our team.

2) Complete Due Diligence on Your TikTok Job Offer by Asking the Right Questions

We can’t emphasize it enough: Make sure you understand the ins and outs of your TikTok job offer before you start negotiating—and especially before accepting. Complete due diligence by asking the recruiting team purposeful questions. By asking questions, you’ll show them how seriously you are taking the process and how much you value the opportunity. With the right questions, you’ll receive answers that can help you develop an effective TikTok counteroffer and ultimately improve your compensation package. You should ask questions even if you think you already know what they are going to say. It never hurts to confirm and you can use our list of Strategic Questions to Build Negotiation Leverage if you need help finding the right questions to ask.

We’ve found that our clients have had more success negotiating TikTok job offers when they start asking questions right after receiving their initial offer. While it’s common to take some time to think over the offer, asking questions right away shows the recruiter you’re actively interested in understanding and pursuing the role.

3) Research the Compensation Ranges to Identify What Your Compensation Should Look Like

Like almost all tech companies, TikTok uses data when making decisions. By investigating compensation data to better understand your role’s pay range, you’ll gain a better idea of the strength of your offer and how much you should ask for in your ByteDance salary negotiation based on your role and where you are located.

While sites like Comparably and PayScale can give you helpful insights into salaries and other compensation components, remember that the publicly recorded pay ranges you see may not reflect all compensation components correctly, especially given changes in compensation from year to year. You can download our Total Compensation Research Comparison Tool to help you with your compensation research.

Regardless of your experience or background, we recommend that you shoot for the mid-to-top end of the total compensation range during your ByteDance job offer negotiation.

4) Send a TikTok Counteroffer to the Recruiter

After you’ve completed these first three steps and are prepped for the negotiation, you should be ready to send over your TikTok salary negotiation counter. Your TikTok counteroffer is an exciting opportunity to highlight what you bring to the team and to advocate for the compensation you deserve.

To begin your negotiation, start by presenting your TikTok counteroffer to the recruiter (you can use our Counteroffer Templates). Make sure to respectfully reference your data findings and communicate how the benefits differ from other companies and/or your current role. While this process could be done over the phone, we strongly recommend you send the ByteDance counteroffer via email. This both ensures that you have everything in writing and makes it easy for the recruiter to share your TikTok counteroffer with the hiring team accurately.

Through the entire negotiation, be firm, courteous, and professional. Since you’re not an employee yet, this is a great opportunity to highlight how you’d act once an official member of their team.

5) Handle Any Objections from the TikTok Recruiter

While it might only take a single counteroffer for the recruiter to come back with an updated TikTok offer letter, this probably won’t be the case. It’s more likely that the recruiter will return with excuses for why the hiring team cannot make any adjustments to your TikTok compensation package. If that happens, don’t panic. You should view their “No” as an objection you need to overcome rather than something that can’t be pushed back on.

If you do receive a “no” to your TikTok counteroffer, begin your response by respectfully acknowledging their limitations. However, you should then reiterate your ask and your desire for them to share your counteroffer with the team—even if they insist their team will simply say no. Regardless of the recruiter’s reasoning you should still adhere to this approach, meaning you should also be prepared with our Objection Handling Scripts if you encounter a few objections. Once they agree to take your counteroffer back to their team, they should come back with an improved offer.

After the recruiter presents you with an updated offer that meets your personal needs and the pay bands you researched, you should be ready to lock it in with an acceptance letter. Congratulations on navigating this process and successfully negotiating your job offer with TikTok!

Mistakes to Avoid During your TikTok Salary Negotiation

While we have spent some time discussing what you should do during your TikTok salary negotiation, we will now briefly touch on some things you should not do. We’ve listed some of the top key salary negotiation mistakes that you should avoid below so that you can secure the best offer.

Avoid Sharing Salary Expectations Before You Get a Job Offer at TikTok

Over the years helping our clients negotiate TikTok job offers, we’ve found that TikTok recruiters will work hard to uncover your salary expectations before providing you with an offer. However, sharing your salary expectations can actually make it more difficult to receive a fair offer—so make sure you don’t reveal these expectations until you have an offer in hand. Using language like this can help you avoid giving in to the recruiter’s questioning. TikTok recruiters might even try to convince you that knowing your salary expectations can help them find a deal that works best for both you and their team. While that sounds like a reasonable request, it’s important to remember that these recruiters ultimately have TikTok’s best interests in mind, not yours.

Here’s an example of how this might actually play out: Say you share a lower compensation expectation with the recruiter than what they could offer. What will then most likely happen is that they will be inclined to offer you that lower compensation. On this flip side, if you answer with number higher than what they are able to offer, there is a possibility that they could become disinterested and decide to go with a different candidate. It also doesn’t make much sense to go over your compensation expectations before you learn more about the specific role and the benefits TikTok can offer you.

Don't Be Afraid to Negotiate a TikTok Job Offer

The fear of losing out on the offer keeps many people from negotiating a TikTok job offer. But here’s what you need to know: We’ve helped facilitate hundreds of successful salary negotiations and there’s nothing to be afraid of. We’ve never seen TikTok rescind a job offer because a candidate tried to negotiate. It's usually expected, regardless of the role level and type—whether it’s an IC role, TikTok engineering manager salary, TikTok director salary, or a TikTok VP salary—you should negotiate. You shouldn’t allow salary negotiation myths to keep you from advocating for the compensation you deserve.

Be Realistic by Doing Your TikTok Compensation Research

While TikTok is a company that pays well, you never want to push for unreasonable compensation. That’s why having a firm grasp on each aspect of your TikTok compensation package is so important. Take the time to research the pay bands of your specific role so that you can make an appropriate ask.

The Bottom Line

Even if the thought of negotiations is scary to you, we still highly recommend that you negotiate your job offer with TikTok. We’ve seen plenty of times how effective salary negotiation can be for Bytedance careers and how it helps people increase their overall Bytedance career earnings. We’re confident that The Salary Negotiator strategy can help you do the same.

If you are looking for personalized advice from one of our professional salary negotiation coaches or you have specific questions about our TikTok job offer negotiation strategies, Book a Consultation. Our years of helping clients successfully negotiate TikTok job offers gives us the experience needed to help you get the compensation you deserve.

We also have our How to Negotiate Your Job Offer and How to Negotiate Your Current Salary courses, and Salary Negotiation Templates to help you gain the confidence and insights needed to negotiate your compensation. With detailed videos, inspiring text, downloadable email templates, and phone scripts, you will be prepared for every aspect of the TikTok salary negotiation.

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