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> The department has created a new system to replace Palantir. > The new system, named Cobalt, is a group of IBM products tied together with NYPD-created softw

> The department has created a new system to replace Palantir. > The new system, named Cobalt, is a group of IBM products tied together with NYPD-created software. You really have to wonder about the quality of this internal product. From what I've gleaned about Palantir over the years, they supposedly have one of the hardest dev interview processes. People that work there are on top of their game. My gut feel is that NYPD does not have as robust of an internal dev situation. Or perhaps they shopped it out to contractors? Either way... skeptical that the system is better. But who knows! It's possible the subset of features a police department actually needs from Palantir might be much smaller than the feature set they're paying for (and not too hard to construct themselves). Whatever is going on, it's clearly a cost-benefit issue. Although, if they're fighting for Palantir's analysis, it seems they need something that Palantir does that they can't do themselves from the data. There really isn't much one can conclude from this article. Only speculation. EDIT: From responses on this thread it seems that the "hardcore super secret analysis" image Palantir promotes might be more bark than bite. What if NYPD actually did create something better? Intriguing.

svendisnigh 9y ago
Anyone can have hardest dev interview process, but that's a poor measure of ability to develop software. Palantir is just another Theranos in disguise, it essentially sells an under-performing graph database with outdated visualization tools while making money providing consulting services using "Forward Deployed (OMG!! You mean like soldiers! /s) Software Engineers".
- freehunter 9y ago
  Often a hard dev interview process is designed to week out undesirable employees, like ones who will demand vacation, time off, normal working hours, etc. I interviewed at a software place in a big engineering college town and their interview was built like a college exam and asked questions that senior-level students would know, but you'd have forgotten within a few years because you'd never use that information in the real world. It was obvious they wanted to hire people who are used to sleeping in dorms/libraries/desks, used to staying up all night, motivated by an authority figure telling them something is important, people who didn't have families or high expectation on salaries. You know: college students. It's a hard interview for us because it's built like a college exam, and how many years has it been since we've taken a college exam? But their target audience, well they just finished midterms.
  - Retric 9y ago
    That's not a hard interview process, it's a targeted interview process designed to accept reasonably intelegent and 'incompetent' people. Which is really how most large consulting firms operate.
Latty 9y ago
> From what I've gleaned about Palantir over the years, they supposedly have one of the hardest dev interview processes. I was working for a competitor when they tried to get me on board as one of their "forward deployed software engineers" - which appeared to be a lot of big talk for hiring a bunch of recent grads and burning them out pumping out menial interfaces for customers so they would feel they were getting value. The interview was very normal, not particularly onerous.
- kendallpark 9y ago
  From what I've heard, the "forward deployed software engineers" is a misleading position that gets software devs to work not software dev jobs.
Maxious 9y ago
IBM acquired a company called i2 in 2011 that already was a competitor to Palantir for defence/law enforcement analysis https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/35255.wss https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/35255.wss Even if you don't have the roughest and toughest devs in the market, surely spending more time with NYPD than the Palantir FDEs (are engineers part of the skeleton staff mentioned in the article?) would get a more valuable result?
- krona 9y ago
  Actually i2 was 20 years old when it was acquired, and it was the dominant law enforcement investigative analysis product in the US at the time. Palantir were the hotshots. Of particular note was when i2 Group took Palantir to court for a conspiracy to misappropriate its software and trade secrets. They settled out of court (for a huge sum of money.) IBM swooped in soon after.
- linkregister 9y ago
  This is Analyst's Notebook, a product that has been around for at least as long as Palantir. I imagine i2 continuously improves on it. In the past, it lacked the huge amount of transforms in Palantir to get data into the worksheet. Of course these transforms were written by expensive Forward Deployed Engineers to write glue code and convert disparate protocols and file formats. It turns out that doesn't scale well, and it looks like Palantir had to raise prices.
koolba 9y ago
It's also possible that they don't actually have that complicated of a problem to solve. Whatever point solution they put together that is specific to their use case (which I admit I know nothing about), would be both slimmer and simpler than a generalized solution.
freyir 9y ago
> they supposedly have one of the hardest dev interview processes. People that work there are on top of their game. The one thing I've heard consistently from the start is that they pay poorly. Generally, the best people don't take low offers. They could make their interview questions impossibly hard if they wanted, perhaps to add to their mystique. But at the end of the day, they get whoever is willing to take their offer.
freyir 9y ago
> they supposedly have one of the hardest dev interview processes. People that work there are on top of their game. The one thing I've heard consistently from the start is that they pay poorly. Generally, the best people don't take low offers. At the end of the day, they get whoever is willing to take their offer.
busterarm 9y ago
https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/New-York-Police-Department-Computer-Software-Engineer-Applications-Salaries-E106980_DAO.htm?filter.jobTitleExact=Computer+Software+Engineer+%28Applications%29 https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/New-York-Police-Department-...
avs733 9y ago
To your edit...(and this is directed at Palantir not you)... Is anyone surprised that Palantir's spin is about embarrassing levels of image management? That is not just a cultural norm for them, that is their business model.

svendisnigh 9y ago

Anyone can have hardest dev interview process, but that's a poor measure of ability to develop software. Palantir is just another Theranos in disguise, it essentially sells an under-performing graph database with outdated visualization tools while making money providing consulting services using "Forward Deployed (OMG!! You mean like soldiers! /s) Software Engineers".

freehunter 9y ago
Often a hard dev interview process is designed to week out undesirable employees, like ones who will demand vacation, time off, normal working hours, etc. I interviewed at a software place in a big engineering college town and their interview was built like a college exam and asked questions that senior-level students would know, but you'd have forgotten within a few years because you'd never use that information in the real world. It was obvious they wanted to hire people who are used to sleeping in dorms/libraries/desks, used to staying up all night, motivated by an authority figure telling them something is important, people who didn't have families or high expectation on salaries. You know: college students. It's a hard interview for us because it's built like a college exam, and how many years has it been since we've taken a college exam? But their target audience, well they just finished midterms.
- Retric 9y ago
  That's not a hard interview process, it's a targeted interview process designed to accept reasonably intelegent and 'incompetent' people. Which is really how most large consulting firms operate.

Latty 9y ago

> From what I've gleaned about Palantir over the years, they supposedly have one of the hardest dev interview processes. I was working for a competitor when they tried to get me on board as one of their "forward deployed software engineers" - which appeared to be a lot of big talk for hiring a bunch of recent grads and burning them out pumping out menial interfaces for customers so they would feel they were getting value. The interview was very normal, not particularly onerous.

kendallpark 9y ago
From what I've heard, the "forward deployed software engineers" is a misleading position that gets software devs to work not software dev jobs.

Maxious 9y ago

IBM acquired a company called i2 in 2011 that already was a competitor to Palantir for defence/law enforcement analysis https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/35255.wss https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/35255.wss Even if you don't have the roughest and toughest devs in the market, surely spending more time with NYPD than the Palantir FDEs (are engineers part of the skeleton staff mentioned in the article?) would get a more valuable result?

krona 9y ago
Actually i2 was 20 years old when it was acquired, and it was the dominant law enforcement investigative analysis product in the US at the time. Palantir were the hotshots. Of particular note was when i2 Group took Palantir to court for a conspiracy to misappropriate its software and trade secrets. They settled out of court (for a huge sum of money.) IBM swooped in soon after.
linkregister 9y ago
This is Analyst's Notebook, a product that has been around for at least as long as Palantir. I imagine i2 continuously improves on it. In the past, it lacked the huge amount of transforms in Palantir to get data into the worksheet. Of course these transforms were written by expensive Forward Deployed Engineers to write glue code and convert disparate protocols and file formats. It turns out that doesn't scale well, and it looks like Palantir had to raise prices.

koolba 9y ago

It's also possible that they don't actually have that complicated of a problem to solve. Whatever point solution they put together that is specific to their use case (which I admit I know nothing about), would be both slimmer and simpler than a generalized solution.

freyir 9y ago

> they supposedly have one of the hardest dev interview processes. People that work there are on top of their game. The one thing I've heard consistently from the start is that they pay poorly. Generally, the best people don't take low offers. They could make their interview questions impossibly hard if they wanted, perhaps to add to their mystique. But at the end of the day, they get whoever is willing to take their offer.

freyir 9y ago

> they supposedly have one of the hardest dev interview processes. People that work there are on top of their game. The one thing I've heard consistently from the start is that they pay poorly. Generally, the best people don't take low offers. At the end of the day, they get whoever is willing to take their offer.

busterarm 9y ago

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/New-York-Police-Department-Computer-Software-Engineer-Applications-Salaries-E106980_DAO.htm?filter.jobTitleExact=Computer+Software+Engineer+%28Applications%29 https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/New-York-Police-Department-...

avs733 9y ago

To your edit...(and this is directed at Palantir not you)... Is anyone surprised that Palantir's spin is about embarrassing levels of image management? That is not just a cultural norm for them, that is their business model.