11–20 of 68 posts
Tough call, but a nice problem to have, congrats!
That said, there's a lot that's rough about the place, especially as it's gotten larger. You'll likely have a little more freedom than at Facebook, but I wouldn't expect to have a significant impact on the product -- though you will absolutely see an impact on a smaller number of enterprise customers. The culture can be a little overwhelming; it's hard to get oriented as a new person. You need to take responsibility for learning things for yourself and have to think on your feet -- don't expect your colleagues to spend a lot of time training you.
I think very few people would blame you for taking the mercenary approach here. However, you may wish to consider who it is you will be working for. Palantir is deeply entrenched in the surveillance state. Though they may come at you with a decent offer, I believe it is ethically impermissible to use my skills in order to contribute to the deprivation of the human rights of others across the world. I do not have much…
I also agree with your rough assessment. Facebook is pretty sketchy as well on the privacy front but you're not really forced to use them if that's a concern.
Having worked for Facebook is probably better for the CV, too if you decide to move on (debatable depending on the specific line of work. Palantir is obviously not an unknown).
- Boring work since you will be an FDE if in NY (data munging, plugins, etc - no "real" coding projects)
- Below-market pay (including equity due to future dilution)
- Culture of working 80-100 hour weeks
- Corporate cult mentality (everyone constantly wearing the company clothing, living at the office, etc)
- Reputation for having a "bro culture"
Facebook:
- Higher cash comp, probably less equity upside
- No opportunity to work with customers if that interests you
- More typical "go to work and code" environment
- You will actually grow as an engineer because you will work on more substantial projects that are not throwaway code for one customer
- Your code will be reviewed
In short, if you don't really care about your life outside of work, and you see yourself enjoying a more consulting focused role that will put you on a career path away from programming in a few years, go with Palantir NYC. If you actually care about improving your software engineering skills, and you have friends/significant other/family that you care about seeing during the week, go with FB.
On the ethical side, without knowing the role specifics, I'd have a hard time considering Palantir. I'd also have a hard time considering Facebook though (still a little better on my ethical companies ranking).
Best of luck!
I think very few people would blame you for taking the mercenary approach here. However, you may wish to consider who it is you will be working for. Palantir is deeply entrenched in the surveillance state. Though they may come at you with a decent offer, I believe it is ethically impermissible to use my skills in order to contribute to the deprivation of the human rights of others across the world. I do not have much…
I agree with the general recommendation that you should consider those factors. I also agree with your rough assessment. Facebook is pretty sketchy as well on the privacy front but you're not really forced to use them if that's a concern. Having worked for Facebook is probably better for the CV, too if you decide to move on (debatable depending on the specific line of work. Palantir is obviously not an unknown).
I agree with what you're saying, but we should mention that Facebook's data collection extends far beyond what we generally think of as Facebook's users. (They collect data on friends of Facebook users as well - search for "dark profiles" to see what I mean, and they also collect data on people who simply view websites that have Facebook "share" buttons or the like).
And it's expanding even further - if Facebook has its way, parts of the developing world will use Facebook as their primary (or only!) way of accessing the Internet.
I agree that Facebook is slightly the lesser of two evils at the moment, but we're basically debating between Scylla and Charybdis[0] here.
Palantir: - Boring work since you will be an FDE if in NY (data munging, plugins, etc - no "real" coding projects) - Below-market pay (including equity due to future dilution) - Culture of working 80-100 hour weeks - Corporate cult mentality (everyone constantly wearing the company clothing, living at the office, etc) - Reputation for having a "bro culture" Facebook: - Higher cash comp, probably less equity upside -…
What?
To start your career at a place where one has to solve huge scaling issues will really do you good. You may not understand everything right away but you would be trained from the beginning to think of scaling anytime you solve a problem. I don't know much about Palantir but I will doubt if they have scaling problems as big as Facebook.
Finally, brand name. Whenever you will decide to move on to the next job, you will have a much easier time if you were at Facebook v/s Palantir. Trust me, this is important. You should view each job opportunity as a stepping stone for your overall career.
So assuming that pay/perks/benefits are more or less similar, I would highly recommend that you join FB.