The architect behind Claude Code reveals the three things Anthropic looks for in a good hire—and why people with low ego are a must

Anthropic is one of the biggest innovators in the trillion-dollar AI industry, having just gone public at a staggering $965 billion valuation, and cemented Claude as one of the most capable assistants on the market. As one of the hottest employers of the AI wave, it has applicants streaming in for six-figure roles. Now, the architect behind Anthropic’s Claude Code, Boris Cherny, just revealed three ways to stand out when applying at the tech giant. “Number one, we like generalists, because they have context across more than just engineering,” Cherny recently said onstage at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference. “We love people that have context across engineering and design, engineering and product, data science and design.” While Anthropic is on the hunt for talent that are jack-of-all-trades, it’s also on the lookout for applicants consumed by their own intellect. Cherny said his second hiring rule is picking candidates with a “low ego,” joining a chorus of CEOs turning away applicants for being too big for their britches. And the AI creator adds that curating a hard-working team of humble employees fosters trusted collaboration among all coworkers. “Ego just gets in the way of stuff,” Cherny continues. “You want to be okay and safe shipping an idea that might turn out to be bad. It’s not your fault, it’s okay to be wrong.” The Claude Code architect adds one last requirement to his hiring line-up: being able to admit failure, and move on. The characteristic feeds back into that “low ego” archetype of talent that embraces criticism from others—especially clients. “The third thing is we love empiricists. So people that are learning from the data, and that are anchored to reality,” the AI leader said. “Like, ‘I have a brilliant idea, but then I talk to a customer and they told me that I’m wrong. I’m probably wrong.’ And, ‘I should probably throw out that idea and try something else. And that’s okay.’” Leaders at Chanel, Olipop, and Twili