4 ms·

> A core reason for Palantir's success is that they convince large numbers of top engineering students from MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, etc, to do this re

by serge2k 11y ago

> A core reason for Palantir's success is that they convince large numbers of top engineering students from MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, etc, to do this relatively unglamorous work for below-market pay. how?

lordlarm 11y ago
https://www.palantir.com/life-at-palantir/ https://www.palantir.com/life-at-palantir/ should give you a hint. They're doing Google style benefits.
- eru 11y ago
  But Google also gives Google style benefits and better than below market salaries. (I guess, there's no mystery: some people apply at Palantir. Even more apply at Google.)
eva1984 11y ago
Maybe it is the mysteriousness that they succeeded to build along the years. As a company it feels far-fetch, likes to hire young, smart yet egotistical engineers and the bar is relatively high.
cmdkeen 11y ago
In part seemingly by sending them off around the world. I know of people permanently based in Dubai for instance - below market pay but no tax and a very expat lifestyle is appealing to many twenty-somethings. Plus the Accenture/McKinsey model is pretty famous in terms of the jobs people go on to afterwards, lots of people who don't really know what to do but are smart go into them with no expectation of doing more than a few years. I don't know if they've also got that concept going as well though.
kqr 11y ago
From a high-level point of view, the work they do appears very interesting. They really try to leverage the strengths of the computer in combination with the strengths of the human mind to provide a superior analysis. It's basically what I think will be the most fruitful (near) future of AI – intelligent human-computer interaction, rather than replacing the human wholesale. I applied for a job there for that reason, but due to an unwillingness to relocate I couldn't follow through.
bane 11y ago
A relentlessly vague, grand sounding mission statement (solve all the world's problems), combined with a cool startup-like (lots of free perks) atmosphere and a work environment I've heard described as both "insular" and "cult-like". If you're young, tech savvy and a bit of an idealist it sounds like a very attractive place to go. Glassdoor reviews are very good https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Palantir-Technologies-EI_IE236375.11,32.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Palantir-Techn... Salaries appear to average low https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Palantir-Technologies-Salaries-E236375.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Palantir-Technologies-Salar...
- recondite 11y ago
  Don't believe the reviews. I was considering a position there, and did some research into the company culture (because everything else about them just seemed impossibly awesome, with the exception of pay). Apparently, they had a fairly low review rating about a year ago which was hurting recruiting efforts, so company leadership "asked" employees to write reviews and a bunch of 5-star reviews popped out in a very short period of time. They all sound like PR copy, all cut from the same mold, and the "cons" of the company aren't really negatives but disguised positives. If you click on the "rating trends" next to the overall star rating you'll see when this happened. Totally creepy and a bit cult-ish if you ask me. Some of the other reviewers actually called them out about this, but since they're an "engaged employer" on Glassdoor, it appears those reviews are getting buried in favor of the ghost-written ones. You can still find them fairly easily though because they'll have 20-50x more helpful tags than the kool-aid reviews. Turned me off completely to them, and makes me think there are some serious issues going on underneath the surface. I also found this blog post written a while back about their business model which I found quite enlightening: http://kellblog.com/2011/06/27/why-palantir-makes-my-head-hurt/ http://kellblog.com/2011/06/27/why-palantir-makes-my-head-hu... It's a little dated, but I think he hits the nail on the head in a few places.

by serge2k 11y ago

lordlarm 11y ago

https://www.palantir.com/life-at-palantir/ https://www.palantir.com/life-at-palantir/ should give you a hint. They're doing Google style benefits.

eru 11y ago
But Google also gives Google style benefits and better than below market salaries. (I guess, there's no mystery: some people apply at Palantir. Even more apply at Google.)

eva1984 11y ago

Maybe it is the mysteriousness that they succeeded to build along the years. As a company it feels far-fetch, likes to hire young, smart yet egotistical engineers and the bar is relatively high.

cmdkeen 11y ago

In part seemingly by sending them off around the world. I know of people permanently based in Dubai for instance - below market pay but no tax and a very expat lifestyle is appealing to many twenty-somethings. Plus the Accenture/McKinsey model is pretty famous in terms of the jobs people go on to afterwards, lots of people who don't really know what to do but are smart go into them with no expectation of doing more than a few years. I don't know if they've also got that concept going as well though.

kqr 11y ago

From a high-level point of view, the work they do appears very interesting. They really try to leverage the strengths of the computer in combination with the strengths of the human mind to provide a superior analysis. It's basically what I think will be the most fruitful (near) future of AI – intelligent human-computer interaction, rather than replacing the human wholesale. I applied for a job there for that reason, but due to an unwillingness to relocate I couldn't follow through.

bane 11y ago

A relentlessly vague, grand sounding mission statement (solve all the world's problems), combined with a cool startup-like (lots of free perks) atmosphere and a work environment I've heard described as both "insular" and "cult-like". If you're young, tech savvy and a bit of an idealist it sounds like a very attractive place to go. Glassdoor reviews are very good https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Palantir-Technologies-EI_IE236375.11,32.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Palantir-Techn... Salaries appear to average low https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Palantir-Technologies-Salaries-E236375.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Palantir-Technologies-Salar...

recondite 11y ago
Don't believe the reviews. I was considering a position there, and did some research into the company culture (because everything else about them just seemed impossibly awesome, with the exception of pay). Apparently, they had a fairly low review rating about a year ago which was hurting recruiting efforts, so company leadership "asked" employees to write reviews and a bunch of 5-star reviews popped out in a very short period of time. They all sound like PR copy, all cut from the same mold, and the "cons" of the company aren't really negatives but disguised positives. If you click on the "rating trends" next to the overall star rating you'll see when this happened. Totally creepy and a bit cult-ish if you ask me. Some of the other reviewers actually called them out about this, but since they're an "engaged employer" on Glassdoor, it appears those reviews are getting buried in favor of the ghost-written ones. You can still find them fairly easily though because they'll have 20-50x more helpful tags than the kool-aid reviews. Turned me off completely to them, and makes me think there are some serious issues going on underneath the surface. I also found this blog post written a while back about their business model which I found quite enlightening: http://kellblog.com/2011/06/27/why-palantir-makes-my-head-hurt/ http://kellblog.com/2011/06/27/why-palantir-makes-my-head-hu... It's a little dated, but I think he hits the nail on the head in a few places.