6 ms·

>Palantir could easily achieve 97% of their results with tier 2 grads, but because they only take Stanford/Princeton/MIT/etc, they can justify their high prices

by desdiv 10y ago

>Palantir could easily achieve 97% of their results with tier 2 grads, but because they only take Stanford/Princeton/MIT/etc, they can justify their high prices to clients. Do we actually have any data on Palantir's hiring practices? Because my personal anecdata is that I have a friend working there and he's from a tier 2 school (University of Toronto, maybe even tier 3?).

rsanek 10y ago
Top 5 schools according to LinkedIn are Stanford, Cornell, Berkeley, MIT, and CMU. See https://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/p?f_CC=20708&trk=rr_connectedness https://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/p?f_CC=20708&trk=rr_connect...
vostok 10y ago
I have an additional data point of someone who didn't finish any university.
zpoley 10y ago
Paysa ranks Palantir #20 in terms of tech talent [1], and also supports a large fraction of their workforce coming from tier 1 schools, as well as salaries [2] that can help attract top talent, even if the work turns out to be unsatisfying. [1] https://www.paysa.com/company-rank#!companies=Google:::Airbnb:::Uber:::Palantir+Technologies:::Facebook&startDate=2011-04-01 https://www.paysa.com/company-rank#!companies=Google:::Airbn... [2] https://www.paysa.com/salaries/palantir-technologies https://www.paysa.com/salaries/palantir-technologies
- thedufer 10y ago
  That salary data is pretty misleading. The equity grants are almost entirely illiquid, and if you take those out the numbers start to look normal (for startups) or low (for big tech companies). Not what you'd expect to need to attract Stanford grads.
sgnelson 10y ago
Does anyone else find it a bit ironic that the same guy who wants to pay people to drop out of college is also the guy who only wants to hire from the "Top schools." I'm old enough now to know where you went to school doesn't correlate to who you are as a person and your level of intelligence (however you may wish to define the different types of intelligence). That and I've met way too many people from "Top Schools" who are just this side of morons, and too many people who have zero or little education who are quite intelligent/innovative/great "engineers"/etc. Still, it's all about that brand.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
  - dbt00 10y ago
    I was a CS dropout who didn't work anywhere near SV when I was hired. The filter (and recruiting pipeline, given the proximity and deep connections to Stanford) tends to correlate with "top CS schools", but I promise you that they're not discarding resumes based on school.
    - canweriotnow 10y ago
      I was a philosophy dropout software engineer who worked on the other side of the country and was aggressively recruited by Palantir a few years back (I passed, mostly not wanting to relocate)... I think they like to keep that top-tier CS count high but still go after engineering talent when they spot it, like any half-sane software shop. The degree thing probably (theoretically?) helps the sales pitch but it's not like an East Coast "white-shoe" firm where anything other than a Harvard MBA is automatic disqualification.
  - jonathankoren 10y ago
    You can justify any biases with that attitude.
    - aptwebapps 10y ago
bhaumik 10y ago
Sure. Here are 818 data points: https://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Palantir-Technologies-Interview-Questions-E236375.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Palantir-Technologies-In...
KKKKkkkk1 10y ago
How can I determine which school belongs to which tier? I always thought of University of Toronto as a top school based on the fact that it employs some of the best computer scientists in the world (Geoff Hinton is practically a celebrity nowadays). Apparently they were a third-world diploma mill all along and I never knew.
- criddell 10y ago
  > How can I determine which school belongs to which tier? Just out of curiosity, what is it that you do that you need to know this?
  - hirsin 10y ago
    It helps with reading comments on HN that discuss tiers of schools. Shared context and all, even if the tiers themselves are meaningless (see Big 3 CS companies etc).
    - blahblah12 10y ago
      What ar the big 3? This seems like a meaningless distinction. I always see Big 4 on Reddit. I don't think anyone has ever said Bi4 4. And even Big 4 makes no sense. It should be Big 5. Wait or Big 10? Isn't that a football conference?
      - huac 10y ago
        Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Amazon have prestige, but more importantly, recruit and hire the most heavily out of college.
        criddell 10y ago
        These days, I think the big 3 are Google, Apple, and Facebook. Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, etc... are all great places to work, but are definitely on the backup-list of the best college grads.
tedmiston 10y ago
1745 current employees on LinkedIn [1] and 76 on AngelList [2]. Those are some data points that could be analyzed from their APIs. 1: https://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/p?f_CC=20708&trk=rr_connectedness https://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/p?f_CC=20708&trk=rr_connect... 2: https://angel.co/palantir-technologies https://angel.co/palantir-technologies

by desdiv 10y ago

rsanek 10y ago

Top 5 schools according to LinkedIn are Stanford, Cornell, Berkeley, MIT, and CMU. See https://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/p?f_CC=20708&trk=rr_connectedness https://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/p?f_CC=20708&trk=rr_connect...

vostok 10y ago

I have an additional data point of someone who didn't finish any university.

zpoley 10y ago

Paysa ranks Palantir #20 in terms of tech talent [1], and also supports a large fraction of their workforce coming from tier 1 schools, as well as salaries [2] that can help attract top talent, even if the work turns out to be unsatisfying. [1] https://www.paysa.com/company-rank#!companies=Google:::Airbnb:::Uber:::Palantir+Technologies:::Facebook&startDate=2011-04-01 https://www.paysa.com/company-rank#!companies=Google:::Airbn... [2] https://www.paysa.com/salaries/palantir-technologies https://www.paysa.com/salaries/palantir-technologies

thedufer 10y ago
That salary data is pretty misleading. The equity grants are almost entirely illiquid, and if you take those out the numbers start to look normal (for startups) or low (for big tech companies). Not what you'd expect to need to attract Stanford grads.

sgnelson 10y ago

Does anyone else find it a bit ironic that the same guy who wants to pay people to drop out of college is also the guy who only wants to hire from the "Top schools." I'm old enough now to know where you went to school doesn't correlate to who you are as a person and your level of intelligence (however you may wish to define the different types of intelligence). That and I've met way too many people from "Top Schools" who are just this side of morons, and too many people who have zero or little education who are quite intelligent/innovative/great "engineers"/etc. Still, it's all about that brand.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
- dbt00 10y ago
  I was a CS dropout who didn't work anywhere near SV when I was hired. The filter (and recruiting pipeline, given the proximity and deep connections to Stanford) tends to correlate with "top CS schools", but I promise you that they're not discarding resumes based on school.
  - canweriotnow 10y ago
    I was a philosophy dropout software engineer who worked on the other side of the country and was aggressively recruited by Palantir a few years back (I passed, mostly not wanting to relocate)... I think they like to keep that top-tier CS count high but still go after engineering talent when they spot it, like any half-sane software shop. The degree thing probably (theoretically?) helps the sales pitch but it's not like an East Coast "white-shoe" firm where anything other than a Harvard MBA is automatic disqualification.
- jonathankoren 10y ago
  You can justify any biases with that attitude.
  - aptwebapps 10y ago

bhaumik 10y ago

Sure. Here are 818 data points: https://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Palantir-Technologies-Interview-Questions-E236375.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Palantir-Technologies-In...

KKKKkkkk1 10y ago

How can I determine which school belongs to which tier? I always thought of University of Toronto as a top school based on the fact that it employs some of the best computer scientists in the world (Geoff Hinton is practically a celebrity nowadays). Apparently they were a third-world diploma mill all along and I never knew.

criddell 10y ago
> How can I determine which school belongs to which tier? Just out of curiosity, what is it that you do that you need to know this?
- hirsin 10y ago
  It helps with reading comments on HN that discuss tiers of schools. Shared context and all, even if the tiers themselves are meaningless (see Big 3 CS companies etc).
  - blahblah12 10y ago
    What ar the big 3? This seems like a meaningless distinction. I always see Big 4 on Reddit. I don't think anyone has ever said Bi4 4. And even Big 4 makes no sense. It should be Big 5. Wait or Big 10? Isn't that a football conference?
    - huac 10y ago
      Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Amazon have prestige, but more importantly, recruit and hire the most heavily out of college.
      - criddell 10y ago
        These days, I think the big 3 are Google, Apple, and Facebook. Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, etc... are all great places to work, but are definitely on the backup-list of the best college grads.

tedmiston 10y ago

1745 current employees on LinkedIn [1] and 76 on AngelList [2]. Those are some data points that could be analyzed from their APIs. 1: https://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/p?f_CC=20708&trk=rr_connectedness https://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/p?f_CC=20708&trk=rr_connect... 2: https://angel.co/palantir-technologies https://angel.co/palantir-technologies