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Working at palantir? (self.cscareerquestions)

5throwaway14 が 投稿

Using a throwaway because obvious job hunting reasons. I've been interviewing with Palantir and I was hoping to get the perspective of people working there currently or previously working there. I've found a few threads on here but most seem a bit outdated so I wanted to find out some more current opinions.

Wondering things like: is the work life balance really as bad as people say? How is the culture especially for any women who work there? Given that a lot of the clients are government do most employees need to get a security clearance? What do they look for most in an interview besides obvious technical ability?

Much thanks!

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[–]belak51 14ポイント15ポイント  (5子コメント)

I don't work there, but one of my former roommates does. In terms of work life balance, it seemed pretty bad. He'd leave for work before me and come back hours after me. He eventually ended up moving closer so it was easier for him to stay later.

Take that with a grain of salt though, as it's just one second hand data point.

[–]PM_YOUR_NIPS_PAPERS 5ポイント6ポイント  (4子コメント)

Palantir pays you more depending on how close you live to the office.

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 5ポイント6ポイント  (0子コメント)

Palantir does have a housing stipend to get people to live closer to the office. It's not too much though, especially in Palo Alto. New York is actually a pretty great offer though.

[–]streetgoon 2ポイント3ポイント  (1子コメント)

What does that say about the culture of work and balance at the company?

[–]zjaffee 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

It doesn't, its a common thing down there, I worked for a company that had great work life balance that had a similar benefit that was based in downtown Palo Alto, as well.

[–]zjaffee 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

This is a common trend for companies in the Palo Alto area, where palantir pays the least out of all the companies that I know of that do this. Additionally, 500 extra dollars a month post tax is not even close to enough to make living in Palo Alto more affordable than living 3 miles away.

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 35ポイント36ポイント  (16子コメント)

I've been waiting a really long time for somebody to ask a question about Palantir. I currently work there and have some complex feelings about the place. Throwaway, obviously. I'm going to try and be as impartial as possible, but call me out if I don't give a good enough answer. I'll do the best I can.

First, the obvious stuff. Palantir sucks at talking to the media. Hell, they take pride in it. This means that there's so much misinformation about the company. The salary cap doesn't exist anymore (see the BuzzFeed article about leaked emails) and they don't do intelligence work. I've talked with a lot of people in the company and nothing I've heard I would classify as sketchy. Maybe there is stuff going on and I just don't know about it. Their media relations drive me and many others crazy.

Quick primer on Palantir's eng roles. Software engineers build products. Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) do "whatever it takes to make a client happy" (from careers page). That can mean integrating data, installing products, stack maintenance, building stuff, etc etc. It's a jack of all trades role in a way that no other company has.

The other thing to know about Palantir is how decentralized it is. Every team can be totally different. You can have a ton of different opportunities to do crazy stuff at Palantir, but it also means everyone's experience is very different. I know people who will never leave the company and those that barely lasted two months.

At Palantir, the work can be immensely impactful. You're doing things that sound cool to outsiders and give you the feeling that you're doing important work. It doesn't mean the work itself is interesting. Software Engineers might be working on awesome web stuff or our mess of a Java Swing core product. The core product enables a lot of great results, but I've heard it's a mess to work on. FDEs might be building a awesome web app, but they're more likely doing routine data integration scripting, looking after servers, configuring products, etc. The work may be interesting, but there's a very good chance you're sacrificing interesting work for interesting outcomes.

Another quick thing about Palantir being sketchy: we don't collect data. It's not a magical box. We take data that's already been collected and display it as a graph. That's about it. You can get a lot of insight by applying graph ideas to your data. We do other stuff to too, but it's all taking a company's data and providing visualizations that SMEs can use. No AI. No ML. No magic. The actual analysis is being done by people.

The benefits are pretty amazing. Health insurance that pays for everything. Great food. A vacation policy that could compete with Netflix.

I feel like I've gone really positive. Let me veer negative for a bit. The company is very travel focused. You will travel a lot. Some people joke that they live in a hotel. You'll get treated exceptionally well when traveling. Palantir says the job is hard and doesn't build products to make it easier. There will be months that are relaxing and months that are 80 hours a week, multiple all-nighters hell. Again, very team dependent. As a FDE, you probably (key word) won't be doing too much true Dev work. Software Engineers get to do Dev work. The people are amazing, but some offices have outstanding communities (best I've ever seen, especially DC) and others are nonexistent.

I'm rambling at this point. Overall, the work is just work. Take this job because you want to build the outcomes that Palantir provides. Understand that a lot of grunt work will be necessary and the job isn't glamorous. The people are amazing. I'm a FDE, pretty sure I'm gonna leave and the people are the only reason I'd consider not.

Also, compensation. As a new grad, the cash part is exceptionally competitive. The stock is in options which sucks. But, the stock keeps going up, albeit not as fast as it used to. I'm very convinced it'll continue to go upwards for quite some time.

Please ask questions!

EDIT: This sounds very positive after a good reread. Too much so. My overarching point is that you have to be excessively careful with the FDE role. Some people get awesome opportunities out of it. Others get stuck as a script kiddie doing stack maintenance nonsense.

[–]manysWeb Developer 5ポイント6ポイント  (3子コメント)

Quick primer on Palantir's eng roles. Software engineers build products. Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) do "whatever it takes to make a client happy" (from careers page). That can mean integrating data, installing products, stack maintenance, building stuff, etc etc. It's a jack of all trades role in a way that no other company has.

Isn't this essentially the model IBM has been using for almost 60 years, later encapsulated in IBM Global Services? FDEs sound exactly like what my Dad did as a Sales Engineer in the early 60s (pre System 360).

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 6ポイント7ポイント  (2子コメント)

You're completely right. The company considers IBM as its main competitor. A couple caveats:

  1. FDEs at Palantir don't do sales. Some might've transitioned that way, but it isn't a sales job. Very many barely deal with clients. But, you'll probably be interacting with people.
  2. You get a surprising amount of latitude. This means you can do a lot, but you're responsible for a hell of a lot more. Much more rigid on-call schedules (I'm basically perpetually on-call) and you have to fix everything that goes wrong. You get to institute your own best practices, which is both good and bad.

[–]manysWeb Developer 2ポイント3ポイント  (1子コメント)

A Sales Engineer is/was an implementation engineer. There may have been some client maintenance involved, but overall it was "they bought this, make it work" onsite stuff.

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

Some people see the word sales and think of a sales person with an engineering background.

But yes, you're completely right. Because there's a level of consulting involved, it's not strictly implementation. Any Palantir contract involves some products that are implemented and some McKinsey style (for lack of a better comparison) consultants to help people solve their problems.

By the way, the Deployment Strategist consultant type folks? Compared to Bain or McKinsey or wherever else, this is an amazing gig for them. A Palantir Deployment Strategist position is probably the best job a consultant (again, imperfect word choice) could ask for. A FDE position is a much harder categorization and could either be the best or worst job a software engineer could get.

[–]5throwaway14[S] 4ポイント5ポイント  (6子コメント)

Glad to hear from someone actually working at Palantir! Tons of good perspective. Why are you planning to leave?

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 5ポイント6ポイント  (5子コメント)

The work. I like what my work does, but I hate my work itself. I've been stuck in the data integration + stack maintenance spiral. Some FDEs get to build awesome web apps and use the latest technology and the like. I haven't. The work I do is important, but it's boring and not really software engineering.

Also, the community. Unless you're in the DC office, the community will be lacking. The DC office is probably the best place to work in the entire city, if not the East Coast. they've done that great of a job.

[–]5throwaway14[S] 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

Definitely a good reason and very similar to why I'm actually looking to leave my current job. What determines which FDEs actually get to work on web apps as opposed to stack maintenance? Is there not a lot of opportunity for you to switch to more interesting roles/projects?

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

When you join, they basically pick a project for you. I strongly recommend knowing what you want and pushing for it. All the projects sound interesting at a higher level, but that doesn't mean day-to-day is good.

As for moving around, Palantir has done an amazing job of removing vertical bureaucracy. Very few levels between any one person and the CEO. There's a ton of horizontal bureaucracy instead. It makes moving around difficult. Some leads are better than others at this.

[–]streetgoon 1ポイント2ポイント  (2子コメント)

The DC office is probably the best place to work in the entire city, if not the East Coast.

That is a very very strong statement but you manage to back it up with only vague notions of "community".

I'm very interested in what exactly you mean. Care to elaborate?

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

I am a believer that one of the most important factors in where you work is the people. It's why I enjoy companies that are smaller (compared to say Google). Palantir as a whole seems to hire nice people.

But, the DC office really seems to act like a community. They have lots of events, people like to hang out with each other, and everybody is amazingly friendly. It's easy to find people to eat lunch with or go to a movie with. It's the only time I've ever seen a tech company that I would categorize as a "community" and not just a bunch of people working in a shared place.

Some of you might say that this is the company pandering to ensure that people are always working. I'd disagree. I really think they've enabled something great in that office. And yes, people work a ton and hang out at the office, and the like.

[–]Calam1tousSoftware Engineer 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Totally fair response. Not sure why you're being downvoted - sounds like the kind of environment I crave, honestly. I really dislike the introverted, distant feel I get at some tech firms.

[–]ginger_beer_m 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

You can get a lot of insight by applying graph ideas to your data. We do other stuff to too, but it's all taking a company's data and providing visualizations that SMEs can use. No AI. No ML. No magic. The actual analysis is being done by people.

That's surprising. So the actual analysis is done by hand?

[–]thrwsitaway1 -4ポイント-3ポイント  (1子コメント)

Chance this guy was paid to write this?

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

As I said, we suck at media relations. Nobody would pay me to write this.

But seriously, call me out on specific things if I sound biased. As I said, I'm probably going to leave the company. But, for some people, I do believe it can be a fantastic place to work. I do want to give everyone here a fair assessment of the company.

[–]meh613 -2ポイント-1ポイント  (1子コメント)

the stock keeps going up

You mean, your grant keeps going up, as Palantir is not public, the stock cannot "keep going up in value" as there is no value assigned to it other than internally.

I'm not at Palantir, but I have heard great things about it. They strike me as being as sketchy as any other big employer in the valley (Oracle, Google, etc.)

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

Not entirely true. In private markets, your options are priced according to a FMV (fair market value). That value is calculated by an outside agency according to some government regulations. That FMV can and does go up.

So, yeah, internal value I suppose. But, that value continues to go up and there's some liquidity (although not great).

[–]pleasedelete123456 8ポイント9ポイント  (5子コメント)

I recently left Palantir-

So 1- it depends on the project that you're on. I know some people who do 40/week and others who push 90. That said- weeks of 100hrs are celebrated because they are doing something "epic" for someone. If you believe in the work or it's really interesting then you're in luck. Personally- I'm the person that LOVES work. I'd do 70hrs easy at my last job but Palantir's work didn't interest me anywhere near as much.

2- Contrary to popular belief- Palantir does not actually spy on American citizens. Their software is good- but it's not goddamn magic.

3- They aren't as big data as you would imagine. I know a lot of people who left because they wanted to work at scale and the scale that Palantir works at is surprisingly small.

4- Culture for women- Palantir is pretty invested in women in tech. They held this recently- https://www.eventbrite.com/e/women-in-engineering-presents-it-starts-with-girls-tickets-24235963419 and it tends to be pretty frequent.
I'd say the gender split is maybe 40/60 F/M? In general, I'd say the company hires socially mature people which is nice. Everybody is a grown up. The bullshit misogyny that you may get at other tech companies doesn't exist at Palantir- or at least I didn't see it. The spread seemed pretty even across job roles as well. Anywhere from FDEs to PMs, to Software Engineers etc. It's not as lopsided as other places.

5- Downsides- people have been quitting. The product backend is too fragmented, and there's just too many custom solutions for every customer. It gets messy and you end up solving the same problem over and over again. A lot of this is driven by the customer. They all have some stupid reason for some sort of information security handling or something which makes life painful. Also you just have lots of brilliant people who eventually think they can do better, so a lot of them strike out on their own to do their own startup.

6- They're VERY organized people. You know the kids at the head of the class in college? The ones that always looked like they had their shit together, took notes well, had neat little sticky notes in their notebooks and seemed to effortlessly do everything under the sun without a problem? It's like a goddamn army of Streetlamp LeMooses.

7- Goddamn these people love to exercise. I went from being the thinnest most in shape guy at my old company, to being the fattest bastard at Palantir. There's one guy who was in the fucking Olympics.

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 2ポイント3ポイント  (3子コメント)

As somebody else currently at Palantir, I agree with all of this. Especially the part about working long hours. All nighters are celebrated. Doing good work to avoid them isn't.

Also, it's interesting on the gender ratio. I had noticed that too but this is my first job. Didn't know what to expect. 60-40 might be overkill, especially depending on the office.

[–]pleasedelete123456 0ポイント1ポイント  (2子コメント)

Also, it's interesting on the gender ratio. I had noticed that too but this is my first job. Didn't know what to expect. 60-40 might be overkill, especially depending on the office.

You must be in the Palo Alto office which does skew more toward males. I think NY is close to 50/50 and DC is more 40/60.

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

That seems reasonable.

And yeah, I spend a decent amount of time in Palo Alto :)

[–]5throwaway14[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

All of those ratios are pretty great compared to a lot of other companies where it's closer to 20/80 in tech roles.

[–]PengWenPenguin 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Unfortunately the gender ratio is not nearly that good, at least in Palo Alto. I believe the most recent statistic released put Palantir at about 18% female, which, more unfortunatley, is right about industry standard.

[–]thrwsitaway1 20ポイント21ポイント  (44子コメント)

I heard the options are a rip off. They max out salary at 140k then offer stock, but they arent going to go public any time soon. So its a rip. Also heard that the projects are glorified data munging.

[–]pojodojo 7ポイント8ポイント  (7子コメント)

but they arent going to go public any time soon

I believe a lot of their initial funding came from the CIA's venture funding arms, which means it's highly unlikely they will ever go public, as some of the public financials they'd need to show would be things their customers/angels don't want shown.

[–]vitaminq 14ポイント15ポイント  (6子コメント)

That's completely false. In-Q-Tel funds a lot of companies and many of them have been acquired or gone public: FireEye, Keyhole, Spotfire, Endeca.

[–]pojodojo 1ポイント2ポイント  (5子コメント)

TIL, thanks for the link.

Do the other companies work with classified or secure data as much as Palatir does? I'd think that might play in as well, considering a lot of the projects they work on are very secret.

[–]5throwaway14[S] 3ポイント4ポイント  (4子コメント)

Does Palantir work with classified data all that much? My impression I have gotten speaking to them is that they build out the platform per company requests but don't actually deal with the data. Partially why I was curious if anybody knew if you need a security clearance to work at Palantir.

[–]heeby-jeebes 2ポイント3ポイント  (2子コメント)

Friend of mine works at their DC/VA location, he eventually had to get his TS clearance several months after starting the job.

[–]5throwaway14[S] 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

Interesting. From what I've heard a lot of their work is government but they also have plenty of commercial work happening now that I assume they would start somebody on until they can get a clearance.

[–]pleasedelete123456 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

their commercial business arm is bigger than their government side these days.

[–]pojodojo 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

The main reason I'd think they have access to the data is the training and support of their products.

Think of the people using the products, do you think they wouldn't need continual training and support?

It's all hearsay though, so it doesn't matter that much I guess.

[–]5throwaway14[S] 1ポイント2ポイント  (16子コメント)

That doesn't seem like too bad of a salary for non Palo Alto offices. What do you mean by glorified data munging?

[–]angles-n-daemons 8ポイント9ポイント  (1子コメント)

Keep in mind the salary is for that of an engineer who would earn 180k+ at other comparable institutions. Also keep in mind the CEO has explicitly stated that the company will NEVER go public so your options are only worth how much you can sell back to the company (which is about 10% of what you earn).

[–]pleasedelete123456 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

So- not NEVER, but not in the foreseeable future. They use "NEVER" because it's a better soundbite. The general notion is more "not anytime soon" because they just dont' see the need to.

[–]Amarkov 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

For most positions at Palantir (including all of the "forward deployed engineers" they love talking about), your job is about moving customer data from some horrible legacy system to Palantir's system. This is certainly an impactful role, and some people are satisfied by that, but from a technical standpoint it's horribly uninteresting.

[–]eloel- 2ポイント3ポイント  (11子コメント)

non Palo Alto offices

They do have an office in Seattle that's trying to compete vs Microsoft. It can't.

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 1ポイント2ポイント  (10子コメント)

What do you mean by "can't compete"?

[–]eloel- 1ポイント2ポイント  (9子コメント)

140k maxed-out salary is nowhere near competitive against Microsoft, who is the leading employer at around Seattle. If they want to attract people from Microsoft, they need at least a comparable salary - especially since they're notorious for the horrible work hours.

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 1ポイント2ポイント  (2子コメント)

The salary cap is no longer a thing. Look at the Buzzfeed "Inside Palantir" article for some leaked info. That being said, they're trying to compete as a startup. That usually means that part of your compensation is a hope that the stock takes off. Very much a personal decision. I agree that they do not compensate as well as most unicorns or the Big 4.

[–]eloel- 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

a hope that the stock takes off.

With the 2013 announcement by the CEO that they will not go public, that is a very distant hope.

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

FMV can increase. If there's enough internal liquidity (or you sell to 3rd parties), you can compensate for them not going public. Eventually, I think they will go public or risk having issues scaling.

Regardless, it's not an ideal situation, but there is some value there.

[–]pleasedelete123456 1ポイント2ポイント  (5子コメント)

they're not going after MSFT, so much they're going after Amazon employees.

[–]eloel- 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

they're not going after MSFT

sure

[–]pleasedelete123456 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

well....it's true. all the recruiting events there are to poach amazon employees.

Don't get me wrong, I like microsoft, but the current recruiting target is Amazon.

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 1ポイント2ポイント  (2子コメント)

I think they just need a Seattle office. Everybody's opening up one. If they want to keep up with talent, they have to be everywhere talent will be. You don't have to hire a ton of Seattle people to make a Seattle office worth it. That's why every tech company under the sun is opening one.

[–]pleasedelete123456 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

it's true. Seattle rent is gonna turn into the Bay area in the next few years.

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

I don't think that's gonna happen anytime soon. Seattle seems to know how to build. Plus, they have more space to build

[–]vzq 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

"Data preparation"

[–]RoidLovinMassMonster 69ポイント70ポイント  (18子コメント)

Make sure you are ok with what they do ethically. Palantir helps the American government spy on American citizens.

[–]5throwaway14[S] 6ポイント7ポイント  (13子コメント)

Can you elaborate on this?

[–]IAmGabensXB1 39ポイント40ポイント  (5子コメント)

They do contract work with all the three letter agencies and are a big data company. Essentially they're helping them with data mining tools.

[–]RoidLovinMassMonster 21ポイント22ポイント  (5子コメント)

The government collects mountains of data on every aspect of every US citizen's life--they have a copy of all your texts, emails, phone calls, Facebook posts, Reddit history, GPS tracking data from your phone, etc. Too much data for humans to sift through. As a contractor, Palantir uses machine learning/big data analysis techniques to help the government find whatever they're looking for in this data.

(And still they had no way of predicting Orlando, but that's another conversation.)

[–]michaelconnery1985 6ポイント7ポイント  (4子コメント)

What if they managed to stop 10 other attacks except for this one? We wouldn't know either

[–]RoidLovinMassMonster 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

We wouldn't know unless they told us, that's true. In the past they have let us know at least sometimes when they stopped somebody... It's good PR. But yes, they are surely doing all kinds of things that we don't know about.

[–]Auflauf_ 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

Gen. Keith B. Alexander admitted that the number of terrorist plots foiled by the NSA’s huge database of every phone call made in or to America was only one or perhaps two — far smaller than the 54 originally claimed by the administration.

Not Palantir, but NSA. Just something to consider.

[–]SilverWingedSeraph -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

True - but it still wouldn't be good enough, because there have been more mass shootings than days this year.

[–]manysWeb Developer -3ポイント-2ポイント  (0子コメント)

Uh, if they prevented attacks it would be front page news with named sources from inside the agencies. Look what happens when they arrest a group of CoD retards.

[–]Hawful 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

They mostly do government contracts with all your big scary three letters. Many of their projects are used to track the movements of ISIS agents. They have also done work with the LAPD which has basically delivered a map of every car in LA through use of stoplight cameras.

So, some pretty skeevy stuff, some fine stuff, they toe that line.

The joke name referencing Sauron's seeing stones probably doesn't help their image though.

[–]DonPellegrinoSoftware Engineer 17ポイント18ポイント  (4子コメント)

Their entire business model can be summed up as "Take young starry-eyed developers, grind them down with horribly frustrating work (importing clients data into Palantir's "magical black box") and get rid of them when they burn out and can't sustain the hours anymore. And that's saying nothing of the ethical aspect of it. Avoid.

[–]5throwaway14[S] 6ポイント7ポイント  (3子コメント)

Have you worked there or is this just your perception of it? Interesting to hear either way

[–]thrwsitaway1 3ポイント4ポイント  (1子コメント)

Go read glassdoor, it says this many times

[–]DonPellegrinoSoftware Engineer 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

It's all over the internet. Personal blogs, Glassdoor reviews, even articles in "serious" newspapers.

[–]IrrelevantPenguins 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

I worked with their forward support engineers overseas. Everyone I met with the company was top notch and a pleasure to work with.

[–]angryplebeSoftware Engineer 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

I've heard mixed things. I feel they really try to sell themselves to the new-grad crowd from your Tier-1 and only Tier-1 universities. Keep in mind, they are really a data science consulting shop with a few bits of special software. In consulting, reputation is everything.

I hear they pay on the lower side but give a tons of fringe benefits (again, catering to new-grads).

Don't get me wrong, there are tons of smart people there but there is a reality distortion field for new-grads.

[–]dexx4d 6ポイント7ポイント  (7子コメント)

Glassdoor.com

[–]upakupak 3ポイント4ポイント  (6子コメント)

This is actually a good answer. I'd be more wary about trusting the rumors from this subreddit than reviews from employees.

[–]123123-1 4ポイント5ポイント  (3子コメント)

The problem with glassdoor is companies know prospective hires read it, so they incentivize their employees to post positive reviews or hr themselves will post to it. My approach to glassdoor is to read the most recent reviews, and the most negative reviews. Based on those, you can get a better picture of the place

[–]strdrrngrSoftware Engineer 0ポイント1ポイント  (2子コメント)

I worked at a place where they would suggest, not all that delicately, to current employees to write positive reviews of the company on glassdoor to counter-act a number of very bad reviews.

[–]ryhamz 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

Big company worth telling us about or no?

[–]strdrrngrSoftware Engineer 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

No, not remotely. I was just using that anecdote as a reason to take some of the reviews on glassdoor with a grain of salt. I've looked into companies in the past and found an overwhelming number of negative reviews but with 1 or 2 in every 10 saying ridiculously sunny stuff like "who wouldn't want to work here!" in them. To me that smells of a planted review.

EDIT: Fixed some confusing wording.

[–]Wojtek242 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

It seems so. I don't think most people who have responded here even worked for Palantir.

[–]dexx4d 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I've seen this question come up a couple of times in the lowest few days, and glassdoor.com provides exactly this service. I've found it useful to include a visit to their site as part of any job application process.

[–]WastedAndReady10 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

I know someone that works for them, several years now. He works in the DC area. I would say working for them is ideal if you don't mind working all the time and don't have much else going on. He has a girlfriend, but they pretty much never see each other, like twice a month maybe. The job has a lot of perks but after interviewing for them myself, I realize that I'm the type of person that my job is just my job, not my life. Others like to blend the two, but it's not for me. Guess take that with a grain of salt as well because that could vary depending on what you'd be doing for them. I had 4 interviews with them, two phone calls and two skype before they just said they'd be moving forward in a different direction. The guy I know there said they can be very picky and tend to gravitate towards people that present very well on paper. Like Ivy League credentials etc

[–]bgnwpm8Intern 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

ITT: No one who has ever worked at Palantir and probably haven't even been inside the building.

[–]iwanagoogle 0ポイント1ポイント  (2子コメント)

Any insights on the DC location and their interview process? I actually have a call with them next month and hopefully an in-person interview afterwards.

Not too sure of what they're looking for and how it may differ from palantir in palo alto.

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

It's all the same.

[–]pleasedelete123456 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

DC location is nice- it's right by the georgetown waterfront but it's not really metro accessible. Driving is a pain in the ass.

Really depends on the role you're going for. Being a normal personable person is as important as technical chops though. Don't be an asshole is the shortest answer.

[–]cecrgr 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

There was a comment in this subreddit about Palantir's reputation. I'll see if I can find it...

Very smart people, very hard to get into, very good pay, and software that really makes a difference. One problem-- that "making a difference" is a major downside for most normal people. Palantir makes a targeting software and are very likely responsible for assassinations by the US and when we disappear people. They're also working on big brother tech if that's your thing.

Essentially, if you're super smart, super talented and want to work for the nsa/cia but don't like the pay, then you work for palantir.

https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/308aoi/what_do_people_know_about_palantir_technologies/cpqao5p

Also, I don't mean any disrespect to you OP, but it was my understanding that questions about super-duper-unicorns (like Square, Stripe, Etsy, Palantir, etc.) were responsible for feelings of unrealistic expectations, as well as self-loathing and insecurity, among less talented software developers subscribed to /r/cscq. I've heard comparisons to the gunners on SDN.*

* Gunners = Originally slang for a medical student is determined to get the highest grades, keep up to date with the latest medical journals, and generally be "that guy" in lecture/discussion or on rounds. It can also mean an insufferable, self-righteous, type-A overachiever in any field. (medical school admissions, law school, undergrad, etc.) In the case of software development, "I'm a high school senior, I have to start putting projects on Github now otherwise it'll be too late to get an offer to a big 4** company", or, "I got offers from Facebook, Stripe and Uber, I don't know which one to pick! Which company has better perks?"

* SDN = The Studentdoctor.net forums, the largest concentration of U.S. gunners per capita on the internet. Canadian equivalent is premed101.com (or maybe lawstudents.ca)

** Big 4 = Not accounting firms (E&Y, PWC, Deloitte and KPMG), but the largest publicly-traded software companies in the U.S. (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Facebook) A few years ago, the fourth spot was taken by various companies (Apple, HP, IBM, Yahoo!, eBay, etc.), but those companies are either hardware-first or in death spirals nowadays. AMZN, MSFT, GOOG and FB have similar sizes, hiring practices, interview processes, expectations, etc.

[–]Palantirthrowaway321 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

As somebody who works for Palantir, we don't make any targeting tech. That's completely outside of what Palantir's core product does. As for big brother tech, Palantir doesn't build data mining tech. We just organize data that people already have. All of the data is in house. There's no NSA-PRISM style nonsense happening anywhere.

As for your metaphor, it's really long-winded, but completely true. The fact is, it's a lot easier for some people to get prestigious jobs than others. Some people have more money, leading to better schools, leading to better universities and better opportunities. For those that don't, the amount they need to compensate is pretty extreme and possibly impossible. That's the unfortunate fact of life. Medical school works the same way. A lot more premeds from Stanford are going to become doctors than premeds from Southwest Metro Kansas Mississippi State College. That means the latter has to compensate a lot.

[–]Hawful 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

So I'm friends with a guy who works there and just spent a few days hanging around their campus.

Basically they build their offices to incentivize you to be a lifer. Everything from every single meal, to haircuts on campus, great gyms, beds, you can basically live their if you want, and that is totally their intent.

But, on the other hand, my friend works as a lead, puts in his 40 hours and that's it. Some weeks he works more, big installs, traveling for work, etc, and some days he goes in at 11 and leaves at 3.

Seems pretty chill personally.

On a recent visit I hung out with a female dev who works on his team. Obviously I can't make any grand remarks from meeting a woman once, but she seemed happy and her other coworkers clearly respected her work.

It seems great. I'm honestly working on upping my skills so I can have a shot working there in the future.