From Pipeline to Prospect: Inside Palantir Recruitment

Top tips for interns and graduates applying to Palantir, featuring advice from two recent recruiting interns and Palantir’s Early Talent Recruiting Team

Hi! We’re Sonam and Jordan.

This summer, we had the incredible opportunity to intern on the Recruiting Team at Palantir Technologies. We grew professionally and personally through exposure to multiple sides of Palantir. Sourcing candidates, shadowing recruiter pre-screens, planning and hosting both internal and external events — we did it all. Somehow, we also found time to read through a huge number of applications!

So how did we end up interning here over the summer? We thought sharing our own unique experience of going through the Palantir recruitment pipeline ourselves, and then seeing it from the other side, would be useful to others who are considering intern or early career opportunities at Palantir. Plus, we have some insider tips from our access to senior Palantir recruiters.

How did you hear about Palantir? What made the internship opportunity stand out from other companies you were considering?

Sonam:
Last summer, one of my close friends interned as a Developer and absolutely loved his time at Palantir. He spent the entire three months raving about how much he loved the people, the company culture, and the work that he was doing compared to other internships he’d had before. After hearing about his experience, and seeing how passionate he was after just one summer, I knew it was something I wanted to be part of.

At the time, there weren’t any recruiting internships advertised, which was disappointing. Luckily, a recruiting internship opportunity went live a few months later. So even if there’s not something immediately obvious or available that suits your skillset, it definitely pays to regularly check the opportunities on the Careers page in case something does pop up!

Jordan:
Interning at Palantir wasn’t on my radar until I found the job posting on LinkedIn. I am a very people-oriented person who chose recruiting because I wanted to help people reach their goals. When it came to the other internships I was looking to apply for, I only really cared about getting recruiting experience — I wasn’t necessarily passionate or motivated by the work the company actually did. Things were different when I found the Palantir opportunity. I felt motivated to apply because not only would I get recruiting experience, but I would also get to help attract and retain people who are working on solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s true.

What have you found most surprising during your time as interns? And what has been the biggest learning opportunity?

Sonam:
Palantir values autonomy and independence, and that is exactly what I crave — I love being able to direct my own growth path and focus on opportunities that excite me. Interns are treated like full-time employees and given actual responsibilities that have a big impact on the company — not just “intern projects” that disappear once the school year restarts.

Of course, sometimes that level of freedom and autonomy can also be daunting. For any project, guidelines are usually provided, but everything else is totally up to each person to own. While this can be incredibly intimidating and I definitely made mistakes, something I learned over the course of my internship was how valuable mistakes are to growth. Palantir is not a company where perfectionism is expected: everyone here makes mistakes, whether they’re interns or full-time employees who have been here for years. Making mistakes gave me greater resilience, and being able to pick myself back up after every fall with the encouragement of my colleagues was very rewarding.

Jordan:
Once I started, I was surprised by the incredibly transparent environment. So many outsiders perceive Palantir to be an opaque, secretive organization, but everyone I interacted with across several different project teams was very open and collaborative.

At first, I was nervous to do work that would have real impact. But I reminded myself that it was my goal to make an impact — Palantir influences so many positive outcomes across different industries, and I could do the same at Palantir! While it might be obvious already, not all internships are alike and I feel like my time here has taught me that a good internship allows people to do valuable work.

What do you think makes a Palantir internship or graduate opportunity a unique experience?

Jordan:
The culture at Palantir is what makes it a truly unique experience. When I was interning for other companies, I always asked what the culture was like. And people would say: “Well, it’s awesome,” but those remarks didn’t seem very genuine: employees wouldn’t be able to back this up with why it was awesome.

During the Palantir interview process, every interviewer emphasized how many genuine relationships exist across different teams, but I was still skeptical. It wasn’t until I arrived here that I realized that the people are what sets Palantir apart. You can literally message anyone in the company and ask them to have coffee for 30 minutes to find out more about what they do, whether they’re a senior level executive whose been here for over a decade or a new hire who just started last week.

Palantirians not only care about their work deeply, but they care so much about the success of their colleagues that they lift them up instead of competing with them.

Sonam:
You’ve probably seen the phrase “At Palantir, you get to choose your own adventure” or something similar on Palantir’s careers portal. Initially, I assumed it was just one of those things recruiters say in order to fluff up the opportunity and get more candidates interested.

However, this motto is something I learned to live by every week of my internship. From traveling to New York, Washington D.C., London, Palo Alto, and Seattle in just two months, to participating in Hack Week where I helped build out an internal platform using Palantir’s products — even as a non-technical intern — I really got to choose how my internship and my summer looked like. All of this with the full support and guidance from the other Palantirians I had the honor of meeting and working alongside.

We hope we’ve been able to shed more light on life at Palantir and our experience. Along with our fellow interns, we’ve had one of the most rewarding and incredible experiences at Palantir (and a lot of fun too) we could have hoped for! We have had the privilege of getting hands-on with the products and doing real work. Plus, we met Palantirians from every area of the company, from Software Engineers to Forward Deployed Software Engineers to Deployment Strategists, to even Dr. Karp (the CEO) himself.

As fellow students who understand the struggles of job hunting, we’re here to offer potential interns and new grad candidates some hot tips on the application process. These are based on our own summer spent as recruiting interns, plus some insider advice from senior Palantir recruiters who have been doing this for a bit longer than we have!

We’ll take it as assumed that the basic 101s of job hunting apply here — do your homework, be prepared, ensure you spell-check everything, you know the drill. Although Palantir is such a fun company to work at, and our recruiters have a more casual approach, be professional and courteous at all times.

Tip 1: When preparing to apply, do thorough research on Palantir and the type of the role(s) that best align with your skills and interests

It might sound cliche to ‘do you research’, but we promise it’ll make you stand out. Tell us what you excites you about our company, with as much specificity as possible (not just “I want to make an impact,” but “I’m passionate about promoting environmental sustainability, so I’m excited by Palantir’s work helping organizations use their data to understand and reduce their carbon footprint”). This helps us better understand who you are and where we think you would be a good fit within the company.

“I focus on preparedness and eagerness. Did the candidate do research and hone in on what specifically excites them about this opportunity in the short answer questions? Do they come off as eager to learn and make an impact? Can they back it up beyond the buzzwords?”

Clare Kessi, Senior Recruiter

Make sure to read the job role(s) you want to apply for, write down any questions you have for later, and DOUBLE-CHECK you’re applying to the right job listing(s). You have no idea the amount of candidates who apply for one job and write on their application that they prefer another. While this mistake won’t affect your chances, checking the roles you’re applying for allows us to streamline the process for you. Quicker applicant review = quicker turnaround for you!

Tip 2: Write your resume for Palantir

There are two parts to our application — the resume and the application questions.

There’s a common belief that companies don’t read the applications and simply feed them through a system to filter for keywords. We can promise you this doesn’t happen at Palantir! Our recruiters read every single application that comes through. Your application is essentially our first impression of you. No pressure, but make it count!

Given what you’ve read about our experience above, Palantir highly emphasizes impact. We want to know what you’ve actually done, not what your job description says you were responsible for. So use your resume to include short bullet points of examples of your impact. We’ll come back to this point in the next section on tips for your application.

“I’m excited to chat with candidates who are low-ego and willing to learn. I value thoughtful answers to the ‘why’ of your past experiences and encourage you to tie this into what makes Palantir the place for you.”

Hannah Finton, Senior Recruiter

We’re also looking for people who have the ability to work autonomously and a willingness to take on more responsibility. We value independent thinkers and those who take initiative to solve really hard problems, so use your resume to demonstrate that you have those skills. Even if these aren’t explicit requirements in the role(s) you’re applying for, demonstrating instances where you put your hand up for work outside your normal role, where you showcased your initiative, or had to think outside the box will definitely earn you brownie points in the review process.

Lastly, show us what you care about. Explain what you’re actually passionate about and why, whether on your resume or in your short answer questions.

Tip 3: Craft thoughtful responses on your application(s)

The application questions are a great way to showcase and expand on your skills, experience and passions from what you’ve included in your resume.

Given our focus on impact, make your application responses reflect the impact you’ve had in different aspects of your academic or professional career. So instead of saying “In X role, I was tasked with planning and hosting events”, a more outcome-driven response would tell us about the time you coordinated an event series that resulted in 200 attendees and 5 hires. What were some of the challenges that you encountered along the way? What was the feedback that you received about your work?

“I focus on thoughtfulness and mission alignment. Is it obvious that the candidate took time and put thought into their answers? Do they seem to be aligned with our mission of making an impact through their work?”

Christina Peden, Senior Recruiter

Also, be as direct as possible in your writing — don’t try to over-engineer your responses to sound a certain way. Just tell us as clearly as possible about the situation you worked on, the actions you took, and what the results were! You might find the STAR method useful.

“As recruiters, we know the path to tech is different for everyone. Candidates that stand out to me showcase ways they have optimized their opportunities, no matter how big or small. I want to know what you learned, how you grew, and what individual impact you had when you’re sharing your past experiences.”

Stephanie Accorinti, Senior Recruiter

Tip 4: The technical interview — Use the prep material and think out loud

Once you receive an invitation to progress to the next stage (which depending on the role you’re applying for might be a coding challenge or preparing a short presentation), you’ll get an email with lots of preparation material. We know, the email is long! But it’s because we want you to be thoroughly prepared for the more technical part of our recruitment process.

To that end, if you have any questions or need more clarity about what’s expected of you, please get in touch ASAP with your recruitment contact for clarification beforehand. Don’t be shy to reach out — it’s in everyone’s best interest that you’re successful.

Another tip for the technical interview is to think out loud while you’re completing the task. Share questions, comments, and observations with your interviewer to help us understand how you’re approaching the problem and thinking through different solutions. At Palantir, we value people who can show adaptability and an open-minded approach to get to the right solution, and taking us through your thinking is a great way to demonstrate these capabilities.

Tip 5: Ask meaningful questions, and don’t be afraid of giving honest answers

During the conversations you’ll have with your recruiter and interviewers, there will be multiple opportunities for you to ask all the questions about Palantir you’ve been dying to know!

You might think that asking questions makes you sound unsure or uninformed. Not the case. We love when candidates ask insightful, thoughtful questions, because it signals to us that you’re actively interested in knowing more. The best questions applicants ask us are ones they can’t just find the answer to via a simple internet search. We know that our company is complex, so it’s a given that that there will be (many) aspects of our work that you’re curious to know more about.

On a similar note, Palantir takes great pride in creating a “flat” hierarchy where the best idea wins. This type of environment requires a huge amount of trust and making sure people feel comfortable being honest and transparent with each other. So when we’re thinking about how potential applicants will fit into our community, we really admire candidates who are able to articulate honestly and eloquently who they are, warts and all. This includes how you’ve handled setbacks, negative experiences, and challenging situations in the past.

“Don’t sugarcoat your previous experiences during the interview process. If you didn’t like a previous internship or project/work experience, it’s okay to say that! We weren’t there — we won’t be offended. If you’re worried about sounding like a “complainer,” orient around what you learned from the experience. Acknowledging why it wasn’t right for you demonstrates critical thinking, self-awareness, and gives us a better idea of if you’d be happy at Palantir.”

Clare Kessi, Senior Recruiter

We hope these tips helped you. If you are interested, we encourage you to check out our Student + Early Talent careers page for more information about opportunities at Palantir!

Sonam Huang is a rising senior at University of California, Berkeley. Jordan Lederman is a rising senior at University of Wisconsin, Madison. Both completed their recruiting Internship during the summer of 2022.

From Pipeline to Prospect: Inside Palantir Recruitment was originally published in Palantir Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.