Thoughts on Things

I interviewed with Palantir - $20 billion valuation as of this writing. It is a company that produces software and largely works with governments and institutions in areas ranging from cybersecurity to financial fraud detection. It was co-founded by Peter Thiel and in his book Zero to One, coauthored by Blake Masters, Peter reveals his favorite question. What is something you believe in that the majority of the world does not? Had I read the book prior to this final round I would have been much more prepared. The exact same question was asked to me – a wondrous example of when reading books about the industry in general can help tremendously. In an interview, you want to begin answering a question before the “awkward time zone”, defined loosely as the time it takes before responding becomes late and creating an impression of not knowing what you’re talking about. I believe 10 seconds of silent thinking is the limit before one enters the zone. 10 seconds is usually sufficient t...

There are many useful guides out there that give information about how to prepare for interviews - smile, research the firm/position, send follow-up emails, among others. I would agree that these are all important steps but the reality of today's job market demands much more than simple heuristics. The job markets I will speak to in this post involve analytics, consulting, business and finance at a general level. I originally prepared this information for a volunteer speaking event done for UniCareer - a career development organization targeted towards international students, but these tips and methodologies are universally applicable in today’s job market. From my peers and first-hand experience interviewing at financial services, consulting, technology, and marketing firms, there are a few predominant practices and categorizations I find helpful to distinguish. I believe the most useful initial breakout of an interview is behavioral vs technical. Broadly speaking, behaviora...

Why should you not treat the final round of an interview as a binary outcome? Because your ability to negotiate the offer is predicated on your performance relative to the company’s true maximum budget. When an offer is extended to you via phone call, it is usually an HR employee or hiring manager who is calling you to congratulate you and provide the high-level offer details (salary, benefits, potential start date, etc). And of course with any offer you receive, you should negotiate it. Say for example, you are calling back the hiring manager, she will have to contact someone in HR to see if the max budget can be pushed, assuming your ask is above that number. The amount of effort she puts into fighting for you is directly proportionate to how much you impressed her and the team in the final round (and whatever else you told her in your negotiation follow up call). She will write up a case to senior HR or whatever budgeting team she has to work with and highlight your x y z skills,...