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Palantir’s $30M ICE Deal. It's Time to Pay Attention

Palantir’s $30 M surveillance bet, 21,780 pink slips at Intel, internships in free-fall—here’s how to stay hire-proof

April 24, 2025

👋 Welcome, Jobseekers

Small announcement: This is Offboard’s 100th email! Cheers!

This week’s feed is hotter than a Tesla battery on Ludicrous Mode. We’re tearing into Palantir’s new “ImmigrationOS” (yes, algorithmic deportation rankings are now a thing), dissecting Intel’s plan to yeet 21,780 jobs into the ether, and mapping the internship drought stalking the Class of ’25. Add a toolkit of AI cheats, recruiter-cracking prompts, and a trio of career hacks so sharp you’ll need oven mitts. Let’s turn chaos into career momentum—because recessions don’t scare people who read the fine print.

  • 📉 Layoff Report: Intel announces plans this week to Cut 21,780

  • ⚡️ Quick Hits: TBD

  • 🧑‍✈️ Career CoPilot: ImmigrationOS: Palantir’s $30M Bet on Real-Time Deportation for ICE

  • 📈 Trends & Data: Internships Are Disappearing. What It Means for the Class of ‘25

  • 🔧 Jobseeker Tools: MindLumen, Interview Coder, Key Values

  • 🤖 AI Prompt of the Week: Win the Hidden Job Market: Crafting a Magnetic Informational-Interview Reach-Out

ImmigrationOS: Palantir’s $30M Bet on Real-Time Deportation for ICE

ImmigrationOS will be an “algorithmic ranking of who gets deported first, with “visa overstays” explicitly prioritized.”

Overview

Palantir just landed a $30 million ICE contract to prototype “ImmigrationOS,” a one-stop surveillance stack that promises ­near-real-time tracking of self-deportations and visa overstays.

Paul Graham made a splash with his back and forth on X with Palantir’s Ted Mabrey:

The Details

  • 💸 $30 million: Add-on contract with ICE, prototype due by September 2025

  • 🧠 Built by Palantir: No competitors were considered—ICE says only Palantir has the “deep knowledge” to do this

  • 🧩 Three core features:

    • Deportation Algorithms: Ranks who to remove first (visa overstays are top priority)

    • Live Tracking: Shows near real-time departures of people leaving the U.S.

    • End-to-End Automation: Manages everything from detention to removal

This new system will plug into Palantir’s existing tech stack, which already pulls from hundreds of data sources—think license plates, biometrics, even scar descriptions.

Why it Matters

  • 🚫 Ethical lines are shifting: Many tech job seekers now ask, “Does this company build surveillance tools?” It’s a real filter.

  • 🧠 It’s a skill signal: Real-time data, biometrics, and legacy system integration are in hot demand (especially if you’re open to gov contracts).

  • 🛡️ Privacy creep is real: The tools used by ICE today often show up in the private sector tomorrow. Employers are watching your digital footprint—tighten it up.

  • 🔍 Lesson in differentiation: Palantir wins because it knows how to wrangle messy legacy data. Take note: niche expertise > general AI hype.

Bottom line: Whether you want in on the next wave of gov-tech or want to steer far away—know what’s happening. ImmigrationOS isn’t just a government upgrade—it’s a preview of how data and ethics will shape the future of tech work.

🎓 Internships Are Disappearing. What That Means for the Class of 2025

Overview

Internship postings and true entry-level openings are slipping just as the class of 2025 tosses its caps, leaving many tech-minded grads to start their search on shakier ground than cohorts only a year ago.

The Details

  • Internships dip below 2019: Spring postings are now 11 percentage points lower than the same week in 2024 and have fallen beneath the pre-pandemic benchmark for the first time in five years.

  • Where the internships still are: Pharmacy commands the top share, but tech-adjacent marketing (7.7%), civil engineering (5.3%), and media & comms (5%) round out the next spots.

  • Entry-level ≠ desk-job: Food service (17.8% of postings require <1 yr experience), driving (16.8%), and sanitation (16.7%) lead the pack—evidence that many “no-experience-needed” roles skew in-person and lower-paid.

  • Postings above baseline—but narrowly: Only 57 % of sectors still sit above their Feb 2020 levels, and over a quarter of those winning categories are healthcare-related.

  • Bright spots in knowledge work: Civil engineering, legal, and management/project-management remain demand leaders even amid the chill.

Why it Matters

For tech-oriented grads, the data signals a tougher slog than last spring: fewer structured internship funnels, a concentration of “easy-entry” roles outside the knowledge economy, and a hiring pulse that’s increasingly sector-specific. Translation: aim for resilience and range. Scrutinize niche openings in product management, UX for healthcare, or civic tech engineering—areas where demand hasn’t cratered. Build optionality by:

  1. Stacking short-term projects (freelance, contract) to mirror the learning arc internships used to provide.

  2. Leaning into cross-disciplinary roles—marketing-tech hybrids or ops-plus-data gigs—that satisfy both cost-conscious employers and your resume narrative.

  3. Pursuing healthcare-adjacent tech (EHR integrations, tele-health platforms) where overall postings are still robust.

The market isn’t frozen, but the easy paths are narrowing. Graduates who treat 2025 like a strategic sprint—collecting experience quickly and pivoting toward pockets of growth—will out-run the chill and stay on track for the jobs they really want.

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Key Values

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Win the Hidden Job Market: Crafting a Magnetic Informational-Interview Reach-Out

Use this week’s AI prompt to write a short, compelling message that convinces a stranger (or loose connection) to hop on a 15-minute call. Perfect for tapping the 80% of openings that never make it to job boards.

Prompt (copy-paste & fill the brackets):

“Please draft an outreach message (150–180 words) that:

• Introduces me as a [your role] with [X years] experience in [industry/skill set]

• Mentions one specific thing I admire about [target’s company or their recent work] (use a friendly, authentic tone)

• Clearly states what I’m hoping to learn on a 15-minute call—e.g., team culture, tech stack, career path

• Offers two easy time slots next week and a Calendly link [your link]

• Ends with a warm, low-pressure close.
Make it crisp, personable, and impossible to ignore.”

Example Output

“Hi Samira—congrats on last quarter’s launch of the AI-powered dashboard! As a data-centric product manager who’s spent 5 years translating messy analytics into features users love, I’m blown away by how your team turned raw telemetry into intuitive insights.

I’m exploring my next move in the AI tooling space and would love to learn how you keep experimentation fast without sacrificing UX. Could we grab 15 minutes? I’m free Tue 10 am PT or Thu 1 pm PT, or feel free to pick any slot that works: calendly.com/steph.

Either way, keep crushing it—your work is inspiring!

Thanks,
Stephanie”

How to use this

  1. Swap the brackets for your real details and Calendly (or drop the link and suggest times manually).

  2. Paste the filled-out prompt into ChatGPT (or your AI of choice).

  3. Tweak the result so it sounds like you—then hit send.

  4. Track who replies, and watch your network (and opportunity set) expand.

Let this prompt be your shortcut to conversations that open doors before the job is even posted!

Reply

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