Ask HN: Should I leave my investment banking job to join Palantir? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Should I leave my investment banking job to join Palantir?

15 pointsdolev-yao14 comments

I have recently been approached by a recruiter from Palantir. I have spent a year and a half doing technology M&A for a notorious investment bank (studied CompSci in uni, went into banking primarily to pay off student debt and for the learning curve).

I feel like I'm at a crossroads. My peers are gunning for the usual private equity/ hedge fund jobs, which pay handsomely. On the other hand, I find Palantir's tech and work incredibly interesting.

I've been offered a Deployment Strategist position in Europe or the UAE. Though there is very little information out there on what exactly the job entails, on promotion/ responsibility policies and compensation.

Is there anyone who could offer some advice?

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You don't mention anything about what drives you or what you'd like to be doing. So I will just pose a few questions:

Is "interesting" worth a six figure opportunity cost per year by foregoing PE or hedge funds? Why do you think it is interesting? Are there other missions that may excite you more? Doesn't it seem a little quick to start evaluating solely based on this external actor (recruiter) contacting you? Maybe Google or Pinterest or Reddit or Watsi would also be interesting?

Are you happy with your lifestyle right now?

How does this tie to your larger aspirations? If 3 years of banking gets you a ticket to an MBA, or the right amount of capital for you to start a business, maybe it is worth staying.

More specific to Palantir: Do you have any ethical issues with Palantir's work? The company seems like it is doing a fair bit of soul searching about how its tools are used, and what its responsibility to the public is. I am not trying to answer this question nor prompt that discussion, but this may be an aspect of the work you should evaluate.

If you look around, you'll find Palantir has a hard salary cap, so your mention of compensation is likely to be a relatively underwhelming value compared to tech M&A work. Palantir isn't competing there.

Hope that helps.

Last Sunday's New York Times has an article that contains a detailed analysis of the soul-searching that Palantir is undergoing as it expands. The article has interviews with the founder of Palantir and its recruiter. It also has photos of the office.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/business/unlocking-secrets...

The article mentions a cap of $450,000 a year in compensation ($137,000 salary + bonus $15,000 + $300,000 stock).

My 2 cents worth of advice would be to take the job and see how it works out for a year. After that, you are free to decide to go or stay, but with much better information at hand to make your decision.

For the record, I'm not a recruiter (and was sad to see myself labeled as such). I've worked on the recruiting problem pretty extensively for Palantir, but I'm actually a software engineer. These days, my work tends towards writing about our technology and occasionally speaking in public but I'd hate to go down in history as a recruiter. (Not that there's anything wrong with recruiters).

Oh there's plenty wrong with recruiters. :-)

If you feel that your work has been wrongly portrayed, you can contact the New York Times, who will ensure that the article is corrected and updated accordingly.

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/corrections/

I worked for an investment bank (think MS, GS, JPM) in their tech department, building apps used by traders, so I think I was as close to "front office" as tech worker can get. Some found it hectic, but for me it was pretty fun answering traders' phone calls and complaints about why a certain column is in the red and why this and that number is fucked up, trying to calm this guys down and figuring out what the problem is at the same time. The coworkers were also encouraging too, so if one got upset at a trader, others would cheer the one up.

Having said that.... I now work for a tech company in west coast (think FB, Google), and I have to say I like it a lot better here. The reason being that you are treated as an employee that generates value for the company, as opposed to someone helping the important people (in my case, traders) generate value for the company. Now you have all these staff working to accommodate your needs, and at the same time the work is a natural extension to some of the CS theories you learn back in school.

The way you phrase it makes it sound as if the choice is between a finance-domain path ("My peers are gunning for the usual private equity/ hedge fund jobs, which pay handsomely") vs. a technology-industry path. I have absolutely no doubt that you should stick to your job with Goldman / JPM and pursue advancement along that path; maybe do a CFA or MBA if that makes sense towards applying for roles that apply to your interest in finance.

Palantir is probably a pretty awesome and innovative tech company but unless you have a game plan to be someone special in tech or tech sales, the sheer amount of "flow" in the finance industry assures you that even the lemmings receive a good salary. If you're good, the sky is the limit.

One reason you may consider leaving Wall Street is if you are working on something that is obviously ethically wrong. In that case, it's not just a matter of pure money.

Just wanted to chime in that your options are not limited to staying at your current job or Palantir. If you are a successful technologist in a bank, and you have a standing offer from Palantir, then you are clearly in demand. The industry standard for engineers right now is actually to get pings from recruiters every few days, and to have many opportunities available (at least in major cities and tech centers).

So do some soul-searching about what industry you want to be in, what sort of company you'd like to work for, and where you'd like your career to go, and then decide whether to stay, leave, or look around.

If there's no information on what the job entails or even compensation it's probably a bit premature to move halfway across the world and take a pay cut in the hope the work will be as interesting (and not at all related to the military-industrial complex) as the PR suggests...

Executing interesting work is its own reward. While handsome pay is often the trade-off for dealing with days and years of drudgery and despair.

You have more options-- besides Palantir, who else is doing important/interesting work? The more players you dialog with, the better chance you'll make an informed decision.

Former recruiter for hedge funds here. Switch banks, roles or cities but stay in finance. Its difficult to get back in once you are out, and while I agree Palantir has incredibly cool products, its a better long term career move to find a way to work with the software from within an investment bank or fund than as a consultant. Others may disagree, and be right.

Thanks for the advice. The problem is that I can't say I'm that interested in finance per se, I'm a tech nerd at heart and see myself more setting up a startup down the road rather than playing out the traditional finance career. Venture capital could be a good compromise, though, and am looking into some options.

I really like that last sentence of the OP. "Others may disagree, and be right."

Based on personal experience, I couldn't disagree more. If you're a good worker, leave on good terms and maintain contacts you will only expand your options.

Always always always go for the role that offers more challenge. Life is always about the risk not taken.

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