U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) software company Palantir has launched a test of hiring high school graduates. Based on distrust of college education, the aim is to select, earlier and on the basis of skill rather than academic credentials, the talent that will be responsible for the company's future.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 2nd (local time), Palantir is running an internship program called the "Meritocracy Fellowship" for 22 people who have just graduated from high school through Nov. The internship lasts about four months, after which candidates are offered interviews for full-time positions and opportunities for employment at Palantir.
This experiment stems from distrust of college education. When Palantir posted the internship notice in Apr., it promoted it by saying, "Instead of going into debt to study at universities where meritocracy has disappeared, earn a 'Palantir degree.'" About 500 people applied at the time, and Palantir made the final selection of 22 people based on its own criteria.
The New York Times reported that the internship was an experiment born of Palantir Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Alex Karp's belief that "colleges are no longer essential institutions for producing good workers." In an earnings conference call in Aug., CEO Karp criticized hiring college students as "ending up hiring people who have been absorbed in mere platitudes."
Teenagers from diverse backgrounds joined the internship. Mateo Zanini, 18, gave up entering Brown University, a prestigious Ivy League school in the United States, and chose the Palantir internship. Zanini was notified of acceptance to the internship almost at the same time as his acceptance to Brown. At the time, he had already secured a full scholarship from the Ministry of National Defense.
Zanini told the New York Times, "No one told me to do this fellowship," and "friends, teachers, even college counselors unanimously said, 'Don't do it.'" Some applicants had little interest in going to college in the first place, or applied to the internship after being rejected by their target schools.
Palantir has only a little over 4,000 employees, but its market capitalization is $475.3 billion (about 678 trillion won), three times that of Lockheed Martin, which ranks No. 1 in the world in defense industry revenue. This underscores that talent is the very core of a company's competitiveness. Palantir's experiment is noteworthy in that, in cutting-edge technology competition, actual capability is taking precedence over a college diploma.
The internship started with a four-week seminar. More than 20 speakers participated, and each week featured a different theme, ranging from the era of westward expansion, U.S. history and distinctive culture, various movements in the United States, and case studies of leaders such as Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill.
Jordan Hush, a senior adviser who works on this program as well as several special projects with CEO Karp, said, "We thought we needed to offer more than the average internship," adding, "They're still kids, aren't they?"
After the seminar, the interns were assigned to Palantir's operating departments and put directly onto real, client-facing projects. Sam Feldman, a Palantir employee who co-runs the program, said, "This is my guess, but whether the interns stay or leave, none of them will end up going into investment banking or consulting," adding, "They got a taste of what it's like to build something themselves and have decision-making authority."