They've got a better image, they get graduates for cheaper, oversell the future IPO and make them work longer hours.

It's no secret that Palantir is a sweat shop filled with "Forward Deployed Engineer", a bullshit title to make people feel important and impress graduates (it does work!).

The sad reality of consulting shop: You are sent from client to client anywhere anytime (the "forward deployed"). Your company takes a big cut on your salary, and they benefit by paying you less while charging more for you.

The guy who replied all seeking clarification on what exactly a "serious" relationship was (regarding who could be your plus one in the company retreat). He got quite graphic.

The guy who got hired, showed up one day to do HR paperwork and got paid for 3 months before anyone figured out he never showed up again.

At least in the UK, FDE's are definitely not underpaid; I don't know how the pay compares in the SV.

Disclamer: I work for Palantir

Tip: When evaluating a work, adjust the compensation for hours worked and don't be tricked by the shares that will never IPO.

The hours are a red herring. Sure, there's people who work very long hours, because they have nothing else to do. But in 2 years as an FDE at Palantir I averaged maybe 50h a week, and only remember one crunch week in all two years where I chose to work >80h (i.e. work on the weekend).

The 42k figure is very low. That's likely for all IT roles including tech support and help desk.

If you are good enough to enter Palantir (they have some standards despite the bad PR), you are good enough to enter a real tech company.

Note that if you are a consultant going left and right to a new client regularly, you should make a comparison against being an independent contractor too.

42k is not very low for an effecitvely entry level software engineer position. My first job in london after (a v. good) college was ~30k (5 years ago though, so sure inflation probably makes that ~32-33k now); finance was paying ~38-40k to grads back then.

Of course independent contracting is a thing; but you can't really be an independent contractor right after college (unless you built a great network, but then you're a ridiculous outlier), and even with job experience it's not a clear tradeoff.

But generally, it feels like you've moved the goalpost quite a bit here. Originally you claim the company exploits young graduates to build a sweatshop. Now we're talking about how they compare to the best tech companies around, and independent contracting.

Palantir London is decent in compensation from what I have heard (that doesn't speak for their other offices). They are however known for pushing 60h+ hours weeks very very bad until your whole life is your work, screwing people with shares that will never be paid, and sending people here and there around various locations.

Of course, there is also variance within a single company. It's possible that you've got a good position at Palantir.

That's 25% over a "standard" work week in the US. If that 42k is based on 40h/week, you'd need to earn 53k+ to "break even" on a 50+h/week (which Palantir appears to do).

FWIW, there are plenty of 40h-45h/week software jobs in the US that pay well into six figures.

a similar trend happened with dell, hp, oracls and ibm- gone are the older, whiter males making over 100k base to sell to corporations as "trusted advisors"

in are the thousands of young kids fresh out of college dialing for dollars and making 45k

What does that have to do with sales aptitude?

I've known a few salesmen who were quite open about their role as the senior guy on the contract was literally to take the client it for a round of golf and reassure them that the 25 year-olds weren't going to suggest too much change too quickly. Sharing the same cultural background, wearing a good suit, etc. gave them instant credibility on that front so they could spend lunch talking about which colleges their kids/grandkids were looking at, which pro golf/baseball/football team was going to do well, etc. and get the deal because the client now felt confident that they'd get what they asked for.

This is definitely a generational thing and I'm sure there's more diversification as the Boomer executives retire. There's must be some salesperson cleaning up with craft beers and SXSW or Tour de France trips now.