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Comment by whorleater | Hacker News Reader

Interning for Palantir is a pretty big resume boost for college students, and they have one of the highest paying internships in the valley. There's some serious benefits to going to Palantir.

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If you have the ability to intern at Palantir you have the ability to intern at any number of more responsible companies. Palantir has a bigger booth at the career fair, but I'd bet working at Apple or Uber is just as much of a resume boost at much less of a societal cost. (source: am a college student)

Interning at Apple or Uber has much more stiff competition though. The barrier to entry for Palantir is remarkably low considering their pay, it's not surprising that college students apply for Palantir. (Source: am college senior)

Will they hire you if you smoke pot? I hear college students sometimes do that.

Thiel has an entire cannabis investment club.

Just rail on the hypocrisy if confronted.

Apple and Uber are not as much of a resume boost (in Silicon Valley, to a SV recruiter). Palantir is sort of on the level of quant finance / Dropbox 2 years ago.

Apple and Uber are hiring like crazy and so it's quite a lot easier to get in there as an intern than at Palantir (which is more selective).

That's surprising, as they're known for being incredibly shady and have a pretty bad rep. They might pay a lot, but it's because it's less desirable to work for the Evil Empire.

Maybe they are useful for students to signal their lack of ethics to employers? “Look, they once worked at Palantir, so they’ll have no problems doing whatever shady stuff we tell them to!”

It's a big resume boost yes. The pay is competitive but not especially higher than any other top companies/startups, though.

Sorry I can't stop myself:

Interning as a prison ward in Auschwitz is a pretty big resume boost for anyone who served in a prison system, and Nazis have one of the highest paying internships abroad. There's some serious benefits of becoming a prison ward in Auschwitz.

That's how I see this parasite company.

Curious to know what Palantir are doing that you have a such an issue with - surely they aren't committing genocide?

Directly not, but to say the company is adding any benefits to our society would be a long stretch.

That's a rather large downgrade to the previous accusations. From evil company to a company with no benefit to mankind. I think you can say that about a lot of peoples jobs - what's your point?

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