Career suicide

I went to check out our new grad hires quickly before responding, since most of the people I know are experienced hires like myself.

Short answer

I'ts not that TikTok / other corporates would hurt your chances, more than that consulting / B4 / IB / PE will help you prep more for the interviews. TikTok is a top firm in its field and a well-recognised brand name. So, it'd be about you passing the online tests + passing the interviews (which are CV blind for us anyway)

Longer answer

• New Grads
  • Majority of our new grads (overwhelmingly so) do come from Consulting / Banking / PE / B4 internships, but not all do
  • Many new grads come with either little to no work experience or from completely unrelated fields
  • One of our newest joiners did actually intern at TikTok (but also at a T2, so they do have both)
• Skillset
  • You might think the recruiting team favours consulting / banking people, but I don't think that this is the case
  • Interning at B4 / Consulting / IB / PE / etc. just (a) gives you more confidence overall & (b) with consulting or B4 you'll have already done a lot of case prep
  • In terms of skills, we don't care where your structuring + problem solving skills come from (e.g., rowing club or your internship at McKinsey or TikTok)
  • As long as you show that you (a) can succeed in a competitive environment, (b) go above and beyond, and (c) can case well (error-free execution + strong structured approach + clear top down communication), you will be competitive