Trilogy Software in the late 90's had the exact same model with cultish hype aimed at graduating students at top universities who mostly didn't know any better and bought into the hype.
Re:Palantir No Longer Works With The NSA
by ryanmarsh on Saturday April 22, 2017 @10:48AM
(#14172781)
Oh Jesus. The shenanigans that went down at Trilogy. The stories and forwarded emails that went around Austin I still talk about.
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.
Re:Palantir No Longer Works With The NSA
by TuringNYC on Saturday April 22, 2017 @11:11AM
(#14172894)
I was at a client site that used Trilogy (an insurance company using their commissions engine.) One day, i'm told that Trilogy HR [unintentionally] implemented an exponential bonus scheme for referral hires. $1000 for one referral, $2000 for two, $4000 for three, and so on. The Trilogy consultants at our client site were laughing at the matter and joking about pooling together all the referrals so they could get $1000 * 2^10 in referral bonuses. Needless to say the bonus scheme was revised.
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.