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Inside Palantir

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Re: Inside Palantir

#101

Post by MattLaroche »

freyr wrote: post #76
callmeed wrote: post #60

My understanding is that Palantir is running an engineering mill/sweatshop using fresh out of school CS grads (particularly from Stanford). That much of their time is spent simply writing client-specific code that imports and cleans up data from disparate enterprise systems. That its not challenging, innovating, or exciting. Of course this is all anecdotal based on what I've heard from friends and a Palantir engineer…

You hear quite a bit about Bay Area companies paying top dollar for fresh CS graduates from top ranked schools. I wonder what compels a Stanford CS grad to take a job doing non-exciting work with a company that prides itself on paying below market rate. Maybe it's the code names?

I quit Palantir after 6 months in 2011; I am a CMU CS grad and I worked at Google for 5 years before Palantir.

Their pitches of "We only hire the best and brightest" and "Our work truly changes the world" sold me on them.

Re: Inside Palantir

#102

Post by kevinnk »

selectron wrote: post #39
api wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure it's creepy, but there's also something else I've been suspecting about all this surveillance for years: it doesn't really work. Moral, ethical, and political problems aside is mass surveillance snake oil? Is there really any credible evidence that mass surveillance has stopped any significant terror attacks? Can you really find needles in haystacks reliably without drowning in false positives?

It is possible that no significant terror attacks were even attempted against the US since 9/11. And if an attack was stopped they wouldn't necessarily want to publish how they stopped it. So it is impossible to really know if the surveillance does anything.

What would you consider "significant"? There's been a number of terrorist attacks post 9/11 and I'd consider at least a couple pretty significant (San Bernardino, Fort Hood, Boston Marathon, Charleston Church). There's been a number of foiled plots too: see http://securitydata.newamerica.net/extremists/deadly-attacks... and http://securitydata.newamerica.net/extremists/nsa-analysis.h...

Re: Inside Palantir

#103

Post by eachro »

I don't see this as particularly damning to Palantir. From what I understand, Palantir is really like a McKinsey/BCG/Bain that specializes in data rich projects. If you view Palantir as another consulting firm, I'd be curious as to how its rates and deliverables compare to the that of MBB. My uneducated guess is that what Palantir is offering for its billing rate is probably in line with the standard for consulting firms.

Re: Inside Palantir

#104

Post by palantir_intern »

callmeed wrote: post #60

My understanding is that Palantir is running an engineering mill/sweatshop using fresh out of school CS grads (particularly from Stanford). That much of their time is spent simply writing client-specific code that imports and cleans up data from disparate enterprise systems. That its not challenging, innovating, or exciting. Of course this is all anecdotal based on what I've heard from friends and a Palantir engineer…

In addition to building dashboards, integrating data and maintaining a data pipeline made up most of what I did as a commercial Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) intern. From what I've seen, this is what most FDEs do. Software engineers, business cultivation engineers, and people in other positions do other things, and I don't know what FDEs outside of the commercial umbrella do.

I think your assessment is correct, though most people I worked with really enjoyed doing that kind of work for many hours a week.

It's not for everyone though, and it wasn't exactly what I was expecting when I accepted the offer. For example, I was expecting that FDEs would be doing more analysis on the data.

Re: Inside Palantir

#105

Post by askafriend »

nilkn wrote: post #89
freyr wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You hear quite a bit about Bay Area companies paying top dollar for fresh CS graduates from top ranked schools. I wonder what compels a Stanford CS grad to take a job doing non-exciting work with a company that prides itself on paying below market rate. Maybe it's the code names?

I interviewed there a few years ago. I can tell you that at least at the time the impression given during the interviews was that of a deep, intellectually enriching place. Mostly everyone I talked to went to Stanford, Berkeley, Princeton, or a similarly ranked school. Many of those not straight out of school had come from Google or Facebook. The interview questions were among the hardest and most technically demandi…

I had a similar experience as well. They put me in a very fancy hotel and let me charge anything to the room (don't worry, I absolutely did take advantage of this). On top of that, they sent an S550 to pick me up on the day of the interview...

Re: Inside Palantir

#106

Post by KKKKkkkk1 »

callmeed wrote: post #60

My understanding is that Palantir is running an engineering mill/sweatshop using fresh out of school CS grads (particularly from Stanford). That much of their time is spent simply writing client-specific code that imports and cleans up data from disparate enterprise systems. That its not challenging, innovating, or exciting. Of course this is all anecdotal based on what I've heard from friends and a Palantir engineer…

Is Stanford CS grads working in sweatshops really a thing? Glad I didn't go to Stanford!

Re: Inside Palantir

#107

Post by askafriend »

lotso wrote: post #88
freyr wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You hear quite a bit about Bay Area companies paying top dollar for fresh CS graduates from top ranked schools. I wonder what compels a Stanford CS grad to take a job doing non-exciting work with a company that prides itself on paying below market rate. Maybe it's the code names?

There was a point where Palantir became the most prestigious place to work out of school.

I think this was around 2011-2012 timeframe.

Re: Inside Palantir

#108

Post by askafriend »

MattLaroche wrote: post #101
freyr wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You hear quite a bit about Bay Area companies paying top dollar for fresh CS graduates from top ranked schools. I wonder what compels a Stanford CS grad to take a job doing non-exciting work with a company that prides itself on paying below market rate. Maybe it's the code names?

I quit Palantir after 6 months in 2011; I am a CMU CS grad and I worked at Google for 5 years before Palantir. Their pitches of "We only hire the best and brightest" and "Our work truly changes the world" sold me on them.

Why did you quit? I'm curious what your observations were as an insider.

Re: Inside Palantir

#109

Post by askafriend »

tomp wrote: post #67
Lxr wrote: post #44

> “One of the things we did well early on was to recognize and invest in the unique talents of each Palantirian” I find it a bit weird how tech companies make up names for their employees now. Googler, Palantirian... does this make people work harder because they feel like they belong or something?

A shortcut to avoid calling them "Palantir employees"?!

I think in this situation, it's the less nefarious explanation that probably reflects reality.

It's probably just a shortcut for "X-company employees"

Re: Inside Palantir

#110

Post by zekevermillion »

Spinning the reported facts another way, Palantir has doubled revs over last year, and could turn a profit at will. Meanwhile it is able to set price optimally at verge of pain point for some of the largest enterprise customers. Sounds like a well-run company.
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