After TikTok
- 2%Founded something5
- 9%Joined a startup24
- 47%Joined a big company127
- 43%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave TikTok most often go to Meta, Google and Amazon. The median tenure is 1y 9m
Not TikTok's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 419 people on a map of 67,181, No. 52 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 4190.6% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 13632% of the people here
- Moved on
- 28368% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 1y 9mmiddle half 1y to 2y 10m
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Meta. Most leave for Meta (17% of recorded departures).
134 of 396 recorded arrivals shown, 262 more from 217 other companies122 of 278 recorded departures shown, 156 more to 111 other companies
How long people stay
23%<1y
31%1-2y
35%2-4y
11%4-7y
0%7y+
376 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
<3016
0017
<3018
3419
29620
622721
964922
932523
967624
469725
111926
joined left2026 is a partial year
2016 to 2026: 439 joined, 303 left.
Caliber
81mediantop 10%87
0Eng Scorer caliber, 171 scored99
there now 78 moved on 82. The people who left score higher than the people still there.
Titles held here
- Software Engineer146
- Machine Learning Engineer53
- Software Engineer Intern43
- Senior Software Engineer33
- Data Engineer12
- Staff Software Engineer9
- Senior Machine Learning Engineer8
- Software Engineer II8
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
First job on the record for 4% of people here.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 12%Strong21 people
- 40%Solid69 people
- 42%Emerging71 people
- 6%Unproven10 people
171 of the 419 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
21 of the 171 people here with a read sit in exceptional or strong, the top two of the five tiers, 12%. A tier is the band a caliber score falls in, so this is the same measurement as the median on the caliber card, opened up.
Whether a title rose here
The level of the first title recorded here, against the last.
25%Titles that rose69 of 276 classified people
- 25%Rose69 people
- 66%Stayed level183 people
- 9%Fell24 people
276 of the 419 people here had a title that could be placed on the ladder before and after.
A title rose when the last title recorded here sits higher on the ladder than the first. For someone with one title here who then left, it's measured against the first title of their next role. The ladder runs intern, junior, mid, senior, staff or manager, principal, director, VP, then founder or C-level. Titles that match no rung are left out rather than guessed, and product, program and project managers are left out entirely as a different ladder. What's left leans towards people who have left: someone still here on one recorded title has nothing to measure against.
Where they studied
- UC Berkeley15.4%
- Carnegie Mellon14.6%
- Georgia Tech7.7%
- Stanford7.0%
- UIUC5.5%
- UC San Diego5.3%
- UCLA5.0%
- Columbia4.6%
The 8 most listed schools among the 417 people here with a school on file.
64 of the 417 people here with a school on file list UC Berkeley, 61 list Carnegie Mellon and 32 list Georgia Tech. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
22%have a public GitHub account on their profile
93 of the 419 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts. An account the check missed reads the same as no account, so this is a floor.
31% is the median across the 857 companies that can show this figure.
Where they are now
69% of the people who have worked at TikTok and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
TikTok
Everyone on the map
- 69%SF Bay Area290 · map 41%
- 11%New York47 · map 18%
- 6%Seattle26 · map 5%
- 4%Los Angeles16 · map 5%
- 3%Washington DC14 · map 13%
- 0.7%Boston3 · map 2%
- 5%Somewhere else23
All 419 people who worked at TikTok list a location, and every share here is over them.
Where they live now, from the profile as it reads today, not where they sat while working at TikTok: a metro here isn't an office there. The lower strip is the same metros across the whole map.
On the same resumes
Companies that show up most often alongside TikTok, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 419 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at TikTok: 136 are there now, 283 have moved on.
- Most leave for Meta: 46 people, 17% of recorded departures. Then Google and Amazon.
- Most arrive from Meta: 40 people. Then Amazon and Google.
- Median tenure at TikTok: 1y 9m, middle half 1y to 2y 10m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after TikTok, 2% went to a founder title next, 9% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 47% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Median Eng Scorer caliber here: 81 on the 0 to 99 scale, across 171 scored people.
- Most common title held here: Software Engineer, then Machine Learning Engineer.
- Top school: UC Berkeley, listed by 64 of the 417 people here with one on file (15.3%). Then Carnegie Mellon (61).
- 69% of the 419 people here who list a location live in SF Bay Area today, against 41% across the map. Where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 22% of the 419 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
- 69 rose, 183 stayed level, 24 fell, out of the 276 people here whose title could be placed on a ladder before and after.
About this data: built from 352,028 jobs across 67,181 engineers in the Zelcast network and Eng Scorer reads, updated September 30, 2026. A move counts when the next role starts within 24 months of leaving. Companies under 20 people on the map aren't shown, and destinations under 3 people fold into the totals. Caliber is the Eng Scorer score.
Worked at TikTok? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
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