Almost interviewed at Palantir today
Today I had a job interview with Palantir in Washington, DC. One of their recruiters contacted me about a month ago about some open positions. I went through a phone screen and talked to an interview coordinator. The company arranged to fly me to DC for an interview. Fast forward to today, with my interview scheduled for 3PM. At 1:09PM the coordinator emailed me to bump the time up to 2:15. Luckily she caught me just before I got in the shower, so I was able to expedite things and get through shower / prep / transit / lunch just quickly enough to make it on time for the interview. I was a bit annoyed at the short notice and thought it could even possibly be a test (since the position I was interviewing for might involve on-call duties, emergency schedule changes, etc).
Walking into their lobby I was greeted by a security person at the reception desk and asked to sign in at a nearby kiosk. As I began, my interviewer walked by and said hello. I put in my information (name, email, person I was there to see, etc) and was then presented with their "NDA". I put that label in quotes because the document was only mostly an NDA. It included many clauses entirely unrelated to non-disclosure. Oddly enough, it did not include a clause saying that the contents of the NDA were themselves not to be disclosed, which is a clause I have needed to amend in the past in other NDAs. The most novel section involved me agreeing not to recruit their employees or contractors for a year, which I found interesting and was willing to sign. The next most novel, and most bothersome, was the following:
"You will not use the Company's name or trademarks without Company's prior written consent."
This threw me for a loop. There was no context or additional language to limit the scope of this clause. It would be perfectly reasonable for me to agree not to claim that I represent Palantir, or to make untrue statements about Palantir, or to infringe on Palantir's trademarks, copyrights, or trade secrets, and this sentence definitely covers some of those things. However, it also covers such things as the wording of the previous sentence, my review of the Palantir interview process on glassdoor.com, or even simply posting to social media "I interviewed at Palantir today".
I spent a few minutes re-reading the document, just to be sure I hadn't missed some clarifying language. I hailed the nearby security person and told him that I had a problem with the language. While doing so, the kiosk reset due to inactivity (less than 3 minutes!) and I had to re-enter all of my info to see the NDA again. He asked another person, whose shirt/nametag did not identify his position as readily, to address my concern. I explained the problem, and he said I should discuss it with my interviewer, who was nearby. A nearby receptionist also chimed in, saying that "everyone" signs it, and "obviously" "everyone" posts to social media about the company regardless. By the time my interviewer walked over I had been timed out again, so instead of entering my info a third time my interviewer entered his own info. He selected "Guest" instead of "Interview" as the visit reason and didn't get an NDA prompt, so he did it again as an interviewee and got to the NDA to read it. We had a short discussion about my objection. He recognized that posting to GlassDoor would be a legitimate use. He disappeared into the office to seek further guidance on the matter.
At this point, I had spent about 15 of the 45 minutes that they had bumped my interview time up by. I spent the next 15 minutes pacing the lobby, reading news articles on the walls about the company, and declining offers of bottled water. My interviewer came back out with someone dressed much less casually than everyone else, in a sport coat that made him look as out of place as I did (in my slacks and tie). I didn't catch his name, but he offered me his phone where he was speaking with Laura, one of the company's lawyers. I discussed my objections with her for a few minutes. She was adamant that the clause was only there to "protect" the company, and that that clause was the only/best way for them to protect themselves from various problems. I told her that I had read of such clauses coming back to bite non-malicious interviewees in the past for their honest statements about a company's interviewing or hiring process, and she said her company would never do such a thing. We were not able to reconcile the problem, but she said she would investigate making a second agreement that would override the NDA on this point (recall that the NDA specifically allows for "written consent" to be made by Palantir for the use of their name). I thanked her, hung up, and gave the phone back to the fellow in the sport coat. He and my interviewer then disappeared back into the office.
Finally, at precisely the time my interview was originally scheduled to begin, my interviewer walked out and told me that our disagreement was irreconcilable. I apologized for his time that had been wasted, without being specific as to who had wasted it, thanked him for the opportunity, suggested that Palantir give their NDA to prospective candidates before flying them in in the future, and left. The security desk person gave me a friendly goodbye on my way out.
Walking into their lobby I was greeted by a security person at the reception desk and asked to sign in at a nearby kiosk. As I began, my interviewer walked by and said hello. I put in my information (name, email, person I was there to see, etc) and was then presented with their "NDA". I put that label in quotes because the document was only mostly an NDA. It included many clauses entirely unrelated to non-disclosure. Oddly enough, it did not include a clause saying that the contents of the NDA were themselves not to be disclosed, which is a clause I have needed to amend in the past in other NDAs. The most novel section involved me agreeing not to recruit their employees or contractors for a year, which I found interesting and was willing to sign. The next most novel, and most bothersome, was the following:
"You will not use the Company's name or trademarks without Company's prior written consent."
This threw me for a loop. There was no context or additional language to limit the scope of this clause. It would be perfectly reasonable for me to agree not to claim that I represent Palantir, or to make untrue statements about Palantir, or to infringe on Palantir's trademarks, copyrights, or trade secrets, and this sentence definitely covers some of those things. However, it also covers such things as the wording of the previous sentence, my review of the Palantir interview process on glassdoor.com, or even simply posting to social media "I interviewed at Palantir today".
I spent a few minutes re-reading the document, just to be sure I hadn't missed some clarifying language. I hailed the nearby security person and told him that I had a problem with the language. While doing so, the kiosk reset due to inactivity (less than 3 minutes!) and I had to re-enter all of my info to see the NDA again. He asked another person, whose shirt/nametag did not identify his position as readily, to address my concern. I explained the problem, and he said I should discuss it with my interviewer, who was nearby. A nearby receptionist also chimed in, saying that "everyone" signs it, and "obviously" "everyone" posts to social media about the company regardless. By the time my interviewer walked over I had been timed out again, so instead of entering my info a third time my interviewer entered his own info. He selected "Guest" instead of "Interview" as the visit reason and didn't get an NDA prompt, so he did it again as an interviewee and got to the NDA to read it. We had a short discussion about my objection. He recognized that posting to GlassDoor would be a legitimate use. He disappeared into the office to seek further guidance on the matter.
At this point, I had spent about 15 of the 45 minutes that they had bumped my interview time up by. I spent the next 15 minutes pacing the lobby, reading news articles on the walls about the company, and declining offers of bottled water. My interviewer came back out with someone dressed much less casually than everyone else, in a sport coat that made him look as out of place as I did (in my slacks and tie). I didn't catch his name, but he offered me his phone where he was speaking with Laura, one of the company's lawyers. I discussed my objections with her for a few minutes. She was adamant that the clause was only there to "protect" the company, and that that clause was the only/best way for them to protect themselves from various problems. I told her that I had read of such clauses coming back to bite non-malicious interviewees in the past for their honest statements about a company's interviewing or hiring process, and she said her company would never do such a thing. We were not able to reconcile the problem, but she said she would investigate making a second agreement that would override the NDA on this point (recall that the NDA specifically allows for "written consent" to be made by Palantir for the use of their name). I thanked her, hung up, and gave the phone back to the fellow in the sport coat. He and my interviewer then disappeared back into the office.
Finally, at precisely the time my interview was originally scheduled to begin, my interviewer walked out and told me that our disagreement was irreconcilable. I apologized for his time that had been wasted, without being specific as to who had wasted it, thanked him for the opportunity, suggested that Palantir give their NDA to prospective candidates before flying them in in the future, and left. The security desk person gave me a friendly goodbye on my way out.