Hey, CS sophomore at Stanford. Prior internships at Facebook and Bay Area startups. I received several offers but these are the ones I am considering: Bridgewater, a hedge fund in Conneticut, as an technology associate (software) intern on the trading technologies team, Palantir, on their Gotham software package for the government, and Uber on the Uber Freight team in San Francisco. Total compensation is around the same and not a huge factor for internships for me. Next summer I either want to work at Google or do quant trading.
For Palantir are you Forward Deployed Software Engineer or pure Software Engineer?
Pure software
Sounds good, their full time pay I assume would be highest TC overall, but it seems you don’t even want to return to those three companies (just stepping stones). In that case either Uber or Palantir. Palantir will probably give you a more unique experience than the FAANG you are accustomed to.
Uber driver.
Palantir Spy.
Bridgewater has unique culture , read up before you go.
Exactly. Bridgewater probably will help you develop your general business skills the most. While Palantir might have the strongest brand, I am willing to bet my money that you would learn the most in Bridgewater (at least when it comes to business problem solving, communication etc).
If your ego can handle it. From what I hear, it can be horrible and used a giant you.
Bridgewater has an unique culture, google it before making a decision. :) More offers coming in? Just curious, you interned at Facebook after freshman? they don’t take freshman I believe, unless you was doing FBU.
Between these three, Bridgewater. Just have a thick skin.
I would pick Bridgewater as a new grad. Ray Dalio's firm. Check out his Principles book. He hints at automating principle-based reasoning with software, and that sounds like a much more ambitious thing than what you may be doing in average teams at FAANG-like companies. Of course, that may be what only a few people do. With that said, this is an impression from a complete outsider to Bridgewater, apart from reading part of the owner's book.
If you’re thinking about Palantir, please research heavily about them. A lot of people now have bad opinions on them and their work in the last 4 years.
@OP I interned at Palantir as a dev (not forward deployed) on Gotham this summer and am returning full time, feel free to PM
Do interns get asked system design? I am giving onsites soon
Yep
All of these companies are... unusual. Uber is probably the most normal of the three.
So do you like finance more or software engineering more?
I don't know, never did finance. But only really interested at quant, (trading, research) roles in finance at places like Jane Street, 2sigma, Citadel, etc.