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When Palantir CEO Alex Karp called for a suite of new recruitment programs to spot raw young talent and prioritize aptitude over experience, the team moved quickly. Within a week, the idea became an actual fellowship.
“We did a speed run from April to June,” says Jordan Hirsch, a senior counselor at the defense tech contractor. “We designed the curriculum, recruited faculty, reviewed applications, brought on the fellows, and arranged housing.”
The inaugural four-month Meritocracy Fellowship drew over 500 applicants for 22 salaried spots. Fellows completed intensive training, used Palantir’s software, and worked alongside full-time employees, and undertook a four-week crash course in the foundations of Western civilization. “We cover what the West is, what makes it different and special, and why we’re devoted to it, through the eyes of Palantir,” Hirsch tells Fast Company. A significant share of participants have already been offered further internships.
Palantir has long invested in early-career talent and converted internship candidates into permanent employees—many of whom go on to start their own companies (Fast Company counted 335 alumni founders to date). Yet even for Palantir, the latest push is aggressive: three new fellowships, plus the Valley Forge Grant, which pays high schoolers $10,000 to spend the summer using Palantir tools to solve a problem that “most inspires them.”
Recent and soon-to-be graduates find the current job market to be nightmarish: Junior job postings are shrinking, the number of applications per posting is swelling, and roles that once trained young people up now demand years of experience. Hiring freezes, AI-driven efficiency pushes, and cost-cutting have made the bottom rung of the career ladder even more slippery. But Palantir is not the only company going big to net juniors. As some firms boast about AI gains and scale back on entry-level hiring, others across the U.S. and Europe are courting the very best entry-level employees using a variety of tactics: outlandish ad campaigns, grassroots movements, and free skilling programs. In short: hiring this group has become a marketing flex—and a transformative development within a workforce that’s already being upended in real time.
How did entry-level hiring get here? And how are companies padding their pipeline for not just the next five years—but the next 20?
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How Lime redesigned its e-bikes to make them easier for more people to ride
For those of us not born tall and strong, using a shared electric bike can sometimes be cumbersome—they’re often big, heavy, and hard to maneuver. Bike-share giant Lime has taken note, releasing a new generation of bikes tailored for riders who could benefit from more accessible design.
One of the first dockless micromobility companies, Lime launched in 2017, eventually filling the streets of major cities across the U.S., Europe, Australia, and the Middle East with its bright-green two-wheelers. Now the company has introduced an alternative model to its standard Gen4, designed to reach riders—particularly women and older adults—who may have found its original model challenging or intimidating.
“The new vehicle builds upon the strong foundation of what is already working well,” Jason Parrish, Lime’s senior director of product management, tells Fast Company.
Lime piloted its new design in July 2024 in Atlanta, Seattle, and Zurich, with an official release in April last year. The model, called a “LimeBike,” is not meant to replace the Gen4, but rather serve as a complement to the company’s bike-share services, offering an alternative for riders.
LimeBikes are currently in circulation domestically in Atlanta, Seattle, and Nashville, and globally in Munich, Paris, Berlin, and other cities.
The LimeBike model came about based on feedback from riders and city officials from around the world who said they wanted bike sharing to feel more approachable and accessible to a wider range of riders, especially those who are shorter in stature or have more restricted range of motion.
Read the full story on Fast Company.