Adam Ward, Cursor's Head of Talent, argues that starting with a confident list of the top 20 percent for a role beats the funnel of doom, which regresses hiring toward the mean.
Ward rates the current hiring market an 11 out of 10 for specific roles, where hiring now moves in days and weeks.
Ward says recruiters are a confidence engine rather than a decision-making engine, so hiring managers must own the hiring decisions and founders cannot outsource talent.
Cursor's talent chief says hire by pursuit, not funnels
Great teams come from pursuing a short, confident list of the best people rather than running a broad funnel. Mass outreach draws replies from people having a bad day and drifts toward average. Cursor's approach is to scope excellence first, map networks by hand, and keep founders and hiring managers personally involved.
Takeaways
Broad outreach pulls hiring toward the mean. Companies reach out to 100 people and about 20 percent reply, but those replies come from people caught on a bad day, not the top 20 percent. Weeding candidates at each stage then pulls results toward average.
Start with a confident list of top people. Ward scopes what excellence means before talking to anyone, then names about 50 people who can do the role and pursues them. Assessment validates the list. Teams should hire one person for a role, not ten.
Network digging beats tools for sourcing. Digging into people's networks is the most valuable and most time-intensive method. Ward asks trusted contacts about specific characteristics instead of who is the best engineer, and targeted questions to several people make the same names recur.
Relentless pursuit means patient, personal contact. Ward stays in touch with top candidates over days, weeks, months and sometimes years, using warm intros, meals and office visits. Caring is free. A hiring manager's first conversation matters, and about half of those candidates should advance.
Founders cannot outsource talent. Founders who call talent their top priority cannot outsource it, and Cursor's founders hired roughly their first 80 people themselves. Recruiters are a confidence engine, while hiring managers make the decisions. Hiring should be measured like uptime.
The market for specific roles is extreme. Ward rates the market 11 out of 10 for specific roles, where hiring now moves in days and weeks. He sees a resettlement of talent and of how work gets done, with design engineers and strong individual contributors rising.
Cursor's candidate experience
The onsite is two-way, built around work samples, curated lunches and greeters. The office is meant to feel like a university campus, and the recruiter acts as quarterback of the experience.
Cursor tried to drop work trials, but Michael Truell said signal totally tanked, so they came back. Candidates choose from a set of problems, and trials are sometimes held on Saturdays.
Companies know they are not a candidate's top choice, so the aim is to win hearts and minds rather than buy people out. One New York candidate received a Turkish guitar-style instrument at the offer dinner.
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On this episode 2
Show 1
Accepted candidates get a Cursor laptop and dinners with others who have accepted, to prepare them before they join.