After TikTok
- 8%Joined a startup6
- 31%Joined a big company24
- 61%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave TikTok most often go to Meta, Amazon and Bloomberg. Median stay 2y 4m
These are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer, not TikTok's headcount: 132 people on a map of 26,572, the No. 72 company on it by people. Updated August 20, 2026.
- People on the map
- 1320.5% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 5441% of the people here
- Moved on
- 7859% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 2y 4mmiddle half 1y to 3y 2m
Put TikTok side by side with another company, every number against every number.
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Meta. Most leave for Meta (18% of recorded departures).
28 of 124 recorded arrivals shown, 96 more from 88 other companies30 of 79 recorded departures shown, 49 more to 45 other companies
How long people stay
24%<1y
18%1-2y
45%2-4y
13%4-7y
0%7y+
116 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
0012
0013
0014
0015
1016
0017
1018
1319
12120
201521
341622
38523
222124
61825
2426
joined left2026 is a partial year
2012 to 2026: 137 joined, 83 left.
Caliber
82mediantop 10%87
0Eng Scorer caliber, 132 scored99
there now 78 moved on 83. The people who left score higher than the people still there.
Titles held here
- Software Engineer59
- Software Engineer Intern19
- Senior Software Engineer11
- Data Engineer5
- Machine Learning Engineer4
5 most common titles, by people who held them.
First job on the record for 3% of people here.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 14%Strong19 people
- 45%Solid59 people
- 37%Emerging49 people
- 4%Unproven5 people
132 of the 132 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
Exceptional and strong are the top two of the five tiers. 19 of the 132 people here with a read sit in them, 14%. A tier is the band an Eng Scorer 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.
19%Titles that rose15 of 79 classified people
- 19%Rose15 people
- 72%Stayed level57 people
- 9%Fell7 people
79 of the 132 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 who recorded one title here and then left, it is 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. A title that matches no rung is left out rather than guessed, and product, program and project managers are left out entirely, being a different ladder. That leaves 79 of the 132 people here classified, and it leans towards people who have left: someone still here on a single recorded title has nothing to be measured against.
Where they studied
- UC Berkeley26.2%
- Stanford6.2%
- UIUC6.2%
- UCLA5.4%
- Columbia3.9%
- Cornell3.9%
- Georgia Tech3.9%
- Harvard3.9%
The 8 most listed schools among the 130 people here with a school on file.
Of the 130 people here with a school on file, 34 list UC Berkeley, 8 list Stanford and 8 list UIUC. A person can list more than one school, so these overlap rather than add up.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
25%have a public GitHub account on their profile
33 of the 132 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts. An account the check did not find reads the same as no account, so this is a floor rather than a census.
Across the 325 companies on the map that can show this figure, the median is 38%.
Where they are now
67% of the people who have worked at TikTok and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 47% of everyone on the map.
TikTok
Everyone on the map
- 67%SF Bay Area88 · map 47%
- 21%New York28 · map 33%
- 7%Los Angeles9 · map 6%
- 5%Somewhere else7
All 132 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 they worked at TikTok: a metro here does not mean the company has an office in it. The lower strip is the same metros across the whole map, for comparison.
On the same resumes
Companies that show up most often alongside TikTok, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 132 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at TikTok: 54 are there now and 78 have moved on.
- The most common next employer after TikTok is Meta (14 people, 18% of recorded departures), followed by Amazon and Bloomberg.
- The most common previous employer before TikTok is Meta (10 people), followed by Amazon and Google.
- The median tenure at TikTok is 2y 4m (middle half 1y to 3y 2m).
- Of those who moved on from TikTok, fewer than 3 went on to a founder title, 8% joined a company with 200 or fewer people, and 31% joined a company with 10,000 or more.
- The median Eng Scorer caliber of people who have worked at TikTok is 82 on the 0 to 99 scale (132 scored).
- The most common title held at TikTok is Software Engineer, then Software Engineer Intern.
- Of the 130 people here with a school on file, 34 list UC Berkeley (26.2%), then Stanford (8). A person can list more than one school, so these overlap rather than add up.
- 67% of the 132 people here who list a location live in SF Bay Area today, against 47% of everyone on the map. That is where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 25% of the 132 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub account on it.
- Of the 79 people here whose title could be placed on a ladder both before and after, 15 rose, 57 stayed level and 7 fell.
About this data: built from 144,786 jobs across 26,572 engineers in the Zelcast network and Eng Scorer reads, updated August 20, 2026. A move counts when the next role starts within 24 months of leaving; companies with fewer than 20 people on the map are not shown, and destinations with fewer than 3 people are folded 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 26,572 engineers.
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