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How did Palantir hire so well?

I have written before about the Forward Deployed Engineer profile, and how hiring for that profile can be highly impactful for a company -- Palantir being a great example. In that blog post I also wrote a bit about how to hire FDEs. But honestly, re-reading that post I realised that the framework I wrote down though helpful to orient, does not give the means to assess whether or not your hiring is going well.

One Hiring Manager

That got me thinking -- how did Palantir do it so well? What was the secret? Unfortunately, the answer is not an easy one. Palantir did things that do not scale for their hiring. During the time I interviewed there, there was 1 hiring manager for all engineering hires. This one individual was responsible for:

  • Gathering feedback from all the on-site interviews a candidate has been through: 3 per candidate.
  • Based on the synthesised feedback, design a bespoke hiring manager interview for the candidate that would gather signal that was missed during the on-site interviews.
  • After the interview, if decided to hire the candidate, write a thorough hiring thesis for the candidate.

These were just the actual interviewing responsibilities. This same hiring manager was also the lead for the whole recruiting machinery:

  • Working with recruiters to put together top of the funnel strategy.
  • Working with leadership and resourcing to understand headcount and/or specific geographical/profile needs.
  • Designing and running the internship program.
  • And most importantly recruit and calibrate new interviewers.

Conclusion

By centralising the hiring function there was immense quality control over the hiring. But as you can imagine, it is hard work and can result in the individual burning out.

Like any other aspect of building a startup, this is a tradeoff. At early stage companies I do recommend founders and/or founding team to be involved in hiring as much as possible. You know your company and its culture better than anyone else. As you scale, if you can find an individual who is willing to take on the hiring function and keep it centralised as much as possible that is ideal for maintaining high quality bar.

Need Help with Your Hiring Strategy?

If you're looking to improve your company's hiring process, I can help. I offer:

  • Tailored hiring strategy development
  • Interviewer training and calibration
  • Guidance on building a hiring function

Whether you're a startup founder or an HR leader in a growing company, let's discuss how to elevate your hiring to the next level. Contact me for a free consultation.