8 ms·

I interviewed there a couple years ago. the guy forgot to call me for the phone screen. I emailed the recruiter and they said sorry they can reschedule for 7pm

I interviewed there a couple years ago. the guy forgot to call me for the phone screen. I emailed the recruiter and they said sorry they can reschedule for 7pm that night when he got home. on the call (which started at 7:15) he talked 90% of the time. he would ask me two or three questions at a time, and when I would get a chance to answer one he would jump in and answer the rest of them for me. I was rejected for lack of technical skills

rdtsc 9y ago
Aren't you glad though. That was very quick way to learn about the company. And you have an awesome story to tell. Same kind of thing happened when I interviewing for AWS. Forgot to call for phone screen. Manager didn't show up on day of interview. Forgot about me during lunch. Had to parrot back the leadership principles while doing even sillier whiteboard puzzles. Then "we'll call you next day" as I had a few offers in hand was more like 2 weeks later.
cylinder 9y ago
It's amazing how many mediocre people are being propped up by investors all over the place.
- mrlyc 9y ago
  I've worked for a number of startups and observed that some people are great at collecting money but don't know how to spend it wisely after getting it, just as some politicians are great at getting elected but don't know how to govern.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    Convincing investors is an orthogonal skill to running a tech company or building a useful product - much like winning an election is a completely separate skill from actually being competent at managing a country. This unfortunate reality is why I try to avoid dealing with systems that developed professionals who are solely specialized at gaming those systems - like MBAs or career politicians.
linkregister 9y ago
I interviewed there. It was extremely challenging, but somehow I passed it. I had a very positive impression of the company and its culture. Recruiters and interviewers were super-responsive. It was in the early days, so it was a very startup-y attitude, "we're so smart" sort of thing. The engineers were smart, from Stanford and CMU, so it was partially justified. I ended up not taking the offer. Not for a particularly good reason, it just didn't fit with life circumstances. Looking back, it would have been a bad idea. I didn't understand the product, which is pretty essential when joining a company. The stock was granted as options, so without an IPO it is illiquid. The salaries were all low, but at the time someone could have lived in Palo Alto on them. It turns out they thought they could tackle this problem of disparate data silos and change the world while respecting privacy. They weren't able to automate away the expensive process of having Forward Deployed Engineers do data integration work.
- ethbro 9y ago
  > They weren't able to automate away the expensive process of having Forward Deployed Engineers do data integration work. Enterprise in a nutshell. And honestly, not what the customers want. If they're hiring you in the first place, they generally suck at tech. So they'd much rather have "Stanford grads on site every day" as proof of how they're spending money. So it's a non-starter for Palantir's management when they're looking at existing customers and their desires, and the continuing trickle of naive tier 1 undergrads. Just keep the company cool enough to attract the crop under Google, Amazon, & FB... And if the customers don't want 100% software data integration, then why spend a lot of money to automate 85% of it?
technion 9y ago
Palantir's interview process gained a lot of discussion here. https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/5ncqti/no_palantir_your_internships_are_not_worth_5/ https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/5ncqti/n... You don't seem to be alone in having issues with it.
eddigo 9y ago
I interviewed there in 2012. The engineer called me, did his little talk and we jumped into the questions. His first question was the subset sum problem. The literal problem. It wasn't even couched in a practical application. So I said "this is subset sum. You can solve it with dynamic programming. I would look it up in a book." His response was "but I want you to solve it." I stopped the interview and thanked him for his time. I'm a senior engineer. Those types of interviews are to stoke the egos of green engineers who remember the solutions to their algo finals questions. If I can look it up in a book, it's not worth the time to quiz me on it.
- flippy2 9y ago
  Lol. Actually, they are the kind of questions us really sr people ask to ensure people are willing to actually do work. Anyone who brushes off a question stating that it's beneath them is going to get walked right out of the building by my team.
  - driverdan 9y ago
    Which team is that? I'd like to know so I can avoid it.
    - jburwell 9y ago
      Ditto. Sounds like a bunch of egos I want to avoid at all costs.
  - civilitty 9y ago
    Yeah, no. Senior people don't want someone to waste time coming up with their own bug ridden solution when it's readily available elsewhere in a peer reviewed form. That kind of experience is what makes gives them the senior qualifier.
    - ng12 9y ago
      So Palantir wants senior people who still know how to write code. If you consider it below you, then don't work there. What's the problem?

rdtsc 9y ago

Aren't you glad though. That was very quick way to learn about the company. And you have an awesome story to tell. Same kind of thing happened when I interviewing for AWS. Forgot to call for phone screen. Manager didn't show up on day of interview. Forgot about me during lunch. Had to parrot back the leadership principles while doing even sillier whiteboard puzzles. Then "we'll call you next day" as I had a few offers in hand was more like 2 weeks later.

cylinder 9y ago

It's amazing how many mediocre people are being propped up by investors all over the place.

mrlyc 9y ago
I've worked for a number of startups and observed that some people are great at collecting money but don't know how to spend it wisely after getting it, just as some politicians are great at getting elected but don't know how to govern.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Convincing investors is an orthogonal skill to running a tech company or building a useful product - much like winning an election is a completely separate skill from actually being competent at managing a country. This unfortunate reality is why I try to avoid dealing with systems that developed professionals who are solely specialized at gaming those systems - like MBAs or career politicians.

linkregister 9y ago

I interviewed there. It was extremely challenging, but somehow I passed it. I had a very positive impression of the company and its culture. Recruiters and interviewers were super-responsive. It was in the early days, so it was a very startup-y attitude, "we're so smart" sort of thing. The engineers were smart, from Stanford and CMU, so it was partially justified. I ended up not taking the offer. Not for a particularly good reason, it just didn't fit with life circumstances. Looking back, it would have been a bad idea. I didn't understand the product, which is pretty essential when joining a company. The stock was granted as options, so without an IPO it is illiquid. The salaries were all low, but at the time someone could have lived in Palo Alto on them. It turns out they thought they could tackle this problem of disparate data silos and change the world while respecting privacy. They weren't able to automate away the expensive process of having Forward Deployed Engineers do data integration work.

ethbro 9y ago
> They weren't able to automate away the expensive process of having Forward Deployed Engineers do data integration work. Enterprise in a nutshell. And honestly, not what the customers want. If they're hiring you in the first place, they generally suck at tech. So they'd much rather have "Stanford grads on site every day" as proof of how they're spending money. So it's a non-starter for Palantir's management when they're looking at existing customers and their desires, and the continuing trickle of naive tier 1 undergrads. Just keep the company cool enough to attract the crop under Google, Amazon, & FB... And if the customers don't want 100% software data integration, then why spend a lot of money to automate 85% of it?

technion 9y ago

Palantir's interview process gained a lot of discussion here. https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/5ncqti/no_palantir_your_internships_are_not_worth_5/ https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/5ncqti/n... You don't seem to be alone in having issues with it.

eddigo 9y ago

I interviewed there in 2012. The engineer called me, did his little talk and we jumped into the questions. His first question was the subset sum problem. The literal problem. It wasn't even couched in a practical application. So I said "this is subset sum. You can solve it with dynamic programming. I would look it up in a book." His response was "but I want you to solve it." I stopped the interview and thanked him for his time. I'm a senior engineer. Those types of interviews are to stoke the egos of green engineers who remember the solutions to their algo finals questions. If I can look it up in a book, it's not worth the time to quiz me on it.

flippy2 9y ago
Lol. Actually, they are the kind of questions us really sr people ask to ensure people are willing to actually do work. Anyone who brushes off a question stating that it's beneath them is going to get walked right out of the building by my team.
- driverdan 9y ago
  Which team is that? I'd like to know so I can avoid it.
  - jburwell 9y ago
    Ditto. Sounds like a bunch of egos I want to avoid at all costs.
- civilitty 9y ago
  Yeah, no. Senior people don't want someone to waste time coming up with their own bug ridden solution when it's readily available elsewhere in a peer reviewed form. That kind of experience is what makes gives them the senior qualifier.
  - ng12 9y ago
    So Palantir wants senior people who still know how to write code. If you consider it below you, then don't work there. What's the problem?