The CEO of Anysphere, a startup that develops an AI programming assistant called Cursor, has revealed details about its hiring strategy for programmers. This may come as a bit of a surprise, considering it's a popular tool for vibe-coding.
The CEO of Anysphere, a startup that develops an AI programming assistant called Cursor, has revealed details about its hiring strategy for programmers. This may come as a bit of a surprise, considering it's a popular tool for vibe-coding.
“We’re actually still interviewing people without letting them use AI, other than autofill, for the initial technical checks,” says Michael Truell, co-founder and CEO of Anysphere, according to Business Insider.
Michael Truell believes that programming without AI is still a great test of skill and intelligence in a limited time. These are the main qualities he looks for in a teammate.
“We’ve hired a lot of people who are fantastic programmers but don’t really have any experience with AI tools,” Truell said. “We’d rather hire people like that and then train them on the job.”
He added that a beginner's mindset can be an advantage for a product and a source of fresh ideas.
The final stage of the hiring process at Cursor is not a traditional interview.
Shortlisted candidates are invited to the company’s office for two days. They work on a real project with the team, join in on lunches, and showcase what they’ve created at the end.
According to Truell, this approach helps them identify people who are truly passionate about “tasks” and not just looking for work.
“You probably won’t be very eager to do something if you treat it like a job and apply to multiple tech companies at once,” he added.
The company is also looking for engineers who are eager to experiment.
Truell said the company encourages employees to take time to experiment in a bottom-up manner, meaning they start small and gradually move toward bigger ideas.
In addition, the company sometimes even splits teams to work on something separately.
