Read the interview experience in palantir
Thanks, @Jil! Interesting and eye opening. I may be old school but some of the comments about the 10-12 hours question are so juvenile to me. It is just a standard question (at least in my opinion) and you should answer it appropriately. Who doesn’t work long hours these days???
Long hours is not a virtue. Honesty, integrity, dependability, and trustworthiness are worth way more. I’ll put these qualities above technical competency.
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In my experience with interviewing too many candidates, if someone were stupid enough to actually answer loaded questions like that so rigidly, probably not someone I would think who would stay and fight the good fight and be a good employee. I always want people who are hungry, not the prima donnas who think we should be kissing their feet the minute they step through the door. No doubt, the qualities you mentioned are very important but I have not met one employee who was that good who didn’t work long hours WHEN needed.
Reviving thread…
That does not sound good at all, Megacommutes!!!
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2016/11/02/megacommutes-on-the-rise-in-silicon-valley.html
Thought is normal for Americans to commute about one hour to work. Why is this view as an issue now? People are getting soft?
Well, it sounds like way more people doing commutes much longer than that. Come on, I do an hour crossing the fab 7x7 alone at 6:30am for Christ’s sakes!!!
1 hour? The runners in Bay to Breakers can do it in 30 minutes
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“Express” bus no less…
WhenI lived in Belmont I could get to my job in Glen Park in 20 minutes…
Those days, Sir, are long, long gone…
We are starting to look and behave like our So Cal friends… (Sweetie, we need to get to X, so we better leave by Y or we will be late/or hit traffic…)
Government workers. Ask me how I know. 
That’s been going on for a long time too. Great aunt lived on 1600 block of Sloat. It took at least a half hour if not 45 minutes to get downtown…in 1975.
Daughter recently resided in inner Richmond, just below Geary. She said drive to work - 101 California no less - was at least 45 minutes. The 38R takes 30 minutes for that trip.
Had to go to West San Jose two Friday’s back. Planned my entire trip around avoiding commute traffic on 680 as much as possible. Hit plenty of it none-the-less. Encountered “the crawl” from Alamo through Walnut Creek to North Concord on the way home at 2:00 in the afternoon. Took a half hour in that section alone.
I won’t tell you what 37 from Novato to Vallejo is like during commute AND on weekends.
Came back from SLO last Monday. Took 7 hours to go 240 miles even though we left early to avoid the South Bay commute. Well, the South Bay wasn’t a problem. It was two serious accidents on 101 down in the rural sections, 680 from Fremont to 580 and 680 again from Alamo to Martinez.
California is a wonderful place. But we have to share it with 38M others. Literally. That’s not always a lot of fun.
P.S. Was my first time in Santa Clara and West San Jose in many years. Very pretty. Very quite. Very nice neighborhoods.
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I don’t know about poor commutes. I live in Evergreen. Work in downtown San Jose, swing shift. 15 minutes to work, 10 minutes home. Eat your heart out. 
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Still quicker to get from Belmont to downtown SF than from the Sunset
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Shoot, many places from the East Bay if right by BART…
You’re not telling me anything I don’t know, but then again living in the fab 7x7 is its own reward!!!
I prefer Belmont to Sunset… 
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Sorry, I don’t recall Belmont ever ranking high on the quality of life score like the Sunset has…
Jobs aside, it’s overrated IMO.
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