Palantir Alum Says the Firm’s Interviews Had been ‘Unattainable’ to Prep for

In an business identified for quirky interview questions, a few of Palantir’s early hiring practices stand out.

In an episode of Lenny’s Podcast launched on Sunday, a former Palantir engineer and startup founder talked about hiring practices and work tradition within the firm’s early days.

With a purpose to get employed, a candidate needed to be interviewed by one of many founders, stated Nabeel Qureshi, who labored on the knowledge evaluation firm for almost eight years till 2023.

“The interviews had been fairly unusual,” Qureshi stated on the podcast.

“You would be chatting about philosophy for an hour and a half and it could very a lot simply be like he would choose a subject out of skinny air,” Qureshi stated, referring to interviews with the Palantir cofounder Stephen Cohen.

“It was unimaginable to arrange for,” Qureshi added. “He would simply go very, very deep and try to take a look at the bounds of your understanding. However it could actually simply be a enjoyable dialog after which should you go the vibe examine, you would be in.”

Qureshi didn’t point out if the corporate nonetheless engages in these hiring practices.

Palantir was based in 2003 by Cohen, Peter Thiel, Joe Lonsdale, and Alex Karp. It supplies companies and militaries, together with these of the US, Israel, and Ukraine, with AI fashions. It went public in 2020 and confronted backlash final yr due to its partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Protection.

Qureshi stated that Palantir screened for 3 specific varieties of individuals: individuals who had been independent-minded and weren’t afraid to push again, individuals with broader mental pursuits, and people who had been “intensely aggressive.”

He added that Palantir additionally attracted individuals exterior of tech, resembling army vets, as a result of it was searching for individuals who weren’t simply technically certified but in addition aligned with the corporate’s mission.

Palantir and Cohen didn’t reply to requests for remark from Enterprise Insider about particulars concerning the firm’s interview course of, and whether or not it nonetheless asks candidates about subjects like philosophy.

Qureshi additionally talked about how the corporate’s tradition and enterprise practices had been a fertile floor to lift future founders.

He stated Palantir instilled founder-friendly mindsets, resembling telling staff to unravel one buyer’s drawback first as a result of that resolution might later be expanded to herald extra enterprise. The corporate additionally requested staff to leap on a aircraft and meet clients in particular person as a result of “the vibe is totally completely different,” he stated.

Palantir has not less than 39 alumni who run their very own startups, together with Lonsdale and the founders of the defense-tech startup Anduril. “Palantir mafia” corporations have been backed by prime Enterprise Capital companies, together with a16z, Sequoia, Accel, and Y Combinator.

Karp, the corporate’s CEO, has on a number of events boasted that the corporate’s staff are among the many greatest within the enterprise. Earlier this yr, BI spoke to half a dozen tech recruiters concerning the energy of getting Palantir in your résumé — and whereas some stated outcomes matter greater than the identify of an organization, they typically agreed that Palantir staff are “top-notch” hires.

Palantir is price near $280 billion. Its inventory is up 57% due to its publicity to AI.