The 4 types of people Dario Amodei said he won’t hire — and what Anthropic looks for instead

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said talent and culture "are the most important things" for a company. Bloomberg/Getty Images Don't bother applying for a job at Anthropic if your goal is to be the star of the show."We don't want people who are jerks. We don't want people who try to steal the show and don't work well with others. We don't want people who aren't oriented towards the public benefit," Amodei told Dimon.Amodei, who worked as vice president of research at research at OpenAI and was a senior research scientist at Google Brain, said talent and culture "are the most important things" for a company. He said he now devotes 40% to 50% of his time to focusing on those priorities.'High-trust, low-ego'The CEO said that talent and culture create technology, and the company's presence and how it's viewed by the public comes from the talent and intentions of the people who build that technology. Amodei said he and his six cofounders decided at the company's founding that talent and culture would be their priority."If you stick to that consistently, it's painful in the short run. But you get a team where everyone works together, and everyone is on the same side," Amodei said.Anthropic describes itself as a "high-trust, low-ego organization" on its website, and in its IPO filing said that "teams operate in a truth-seeking environment where the best argument wins, not the loudest voice or the most senior title." Amodei told Dimon that he encourages other leaders to demonstrate honesty and trust. He said that every two weeks he holds a "Dario Vision Quest," an all-hands meeting where he said he speaks to the company about what's going on.Amodei said he tries not to hide things from staff and doesn't rely on corporate jargon. That creates an environment where employees can trust leaders and leaders can trust employees, he said. "Everyone feels that we're being honest with them," Amodei said, adding that this carries "enormous value."A focus on retentionAmodei told Dimon that the approach works because employees share the same values and a common goal. Whether the task is training a model, meeting a safety objective, building a product, or advancing a policy priority, "the whole company comes together to make it happen," he said.Amodei said that maintaining that kind of environment has helped with retention, which is critical given the company's dependence on senior leaders and key technical team members. Amodei said that all seven cofounders, including himself, are still at the company, along with over three-quarters of its first 100 employees. In its IPO filing, Anthropic said it experienced only about 1% "regrettable attrition" in a 12-month period.Amodei added that it's a "relatively frequent" occurrence for employees to come back after leaving. He said two major product employees left and came back after two weeks."They said, 'Sorry, we didn't appreciate what we had,'" Amodei said about their return. Read next Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Ana writes about workplace trends, careers, and how AI is reshaping software engineering roles. She also regularly interviews C-suite executives about their trajectories and leadership insights.Ana is the host of "Get Better at Work," a series that offers advice about the habits and behaviors that can help workers stand out and build their careers. She also hosts "Work Shift," which breaks down the biggest workplace news of the week. She holds a master’s degree in multimedia journalism from NYU and has been featured on BBC, NPR, and other global media platforms.Have a tip? You can contact her via email at aaltchek@businessinsider.com or through the secure-messaging app Signal at aalt.19. Anthropic Hiring Culture More