Although on the Palantir website the interview process is described as including a day of on-site interview, I only had phone/video interviews - 1 preliminary with a recruiter and then 6 with members of the team, over 3 separate occasions.
Pros:
The interviews were structured, and felt focused on understanding what sort of person I am.
Cons:
- All the interviewers asked if I could explain the position to them (!), which was very strange. In addition, they kept referring to it as SRO, and when I asked, said it's the internal name for the project manager role. A friend who works at Palantir sent me the internal job description for this position, and it was very different from what they presented me with. It could best be described as a project coordinator position. I was told by my friend that the title of the position was changed externally to Technical Project Manager to make it more appealing, as they were unable to staff it. I then asked the interviewer in the next session how much of the role is admin, and he dodged the question repeatedly.
- Although I interviewed for a position with one of the smaller offices, none of the interviewers were from that office, and they were unable to answer even the most basic questions regarding that office (how many people, what sort of customers etc). It felt like they made no attempt to prepare for the interview.
- They would not clarify how come there's no on-site interview. This was particularly strange, as on their website it clearly states that all interviewees are brought into one of the main offices for interviews.
- When I asked them to describe a typical day in this role, I repeatedly got dismissive responses (" so varied it can't be described" was the most common one. I then asked to describe a day, any day, and even then got dismissive responses.
While I ended up getting an offer, I turned it down. I did not like the idea that a role has an external description that is different from an internal one. The fact that they repeatedly asked me to describe the position back to them enforced my feeling that there is something that are not disclosing about this position. I am glad I did turn it down, as I later met, in social circumstances, an SRO, who told me all they do is admin work for the projects.