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Hiring Cookbook

A curated selection of hiring practices from companies that publish how they attract, screen, and close talent. Remix job ads, sourcing, screening, interviews, work trials, and offers into your own approach.

About this cookbook

What's this?

A pick-and-mix gallery of hiring practices from companies that publish how they attract, screen, and close talent. Ingredients are organised by stage: job ads, sourcing, screening, interviews, work trials, and offers.

How to use

  1. 1Browse by stage with the chapter nav, or scroll the full cookbook.
  2. 2Open live examples from the companies that published them, then remix what fits your bar and culture.

Writing the outward-facing story?

Pair these hiring ingredients with a transparent job advert structure so candidates see the same honesty from first click to offer. Transparent Job Advert Template.

With thanks

Shoutout to the companies whose open culture stance lets the rest of us learn.

AndurilAshbyAutomatticBasecampBufferCursorDuolingoElevenLabsFigmaGumroadLinearLoomPostHogRampRevolutSourcegraphSupabase

How roles show up in public

Job ads

Who writes the ad, what gets stated upfront, and how transparent the offer terms are before anyone applies.

Ashby

Job descriptions written in first person by the team lead, not HR

First personHiring manager owned

View live example

Sourcegraph

Salary range on every external job posting

Salary on postingTransparency

View live example

Gumroad

Stated rates are the rates: no negotiation in the ad

No negotiationClear rates

View live example

Where talent comes from

Sourcing

How ambitious teams find people beyond the LinkedIn default, including year-round recruiting and founder-led courtship.

ElevenLabs

CEO explicitly against LinkedIn-first hiring: hired a researcher working in a call centre

Non-traditional sourcingFounder-led

View live example

Anduril

Year-round recruiting with no open role required

Always-on recruiting

View live example

Cursor

Flew across the world to court candidates who said no

Candidate courtshipPersistence

View live example

Ramp

Only top performers interview candidates: shapes the bar from inside the room

Interviewer qualityBar raising

View live example

First filters

Screening

How companies run early screens: AI at scale, human-only technical bars, Slack-first loops, and bias controls.

ElevenLabs

AI voice clones of recruiters handle pre-screening at scale

AI screeningVoice agents

View live example

Cursor

No AI in technical screens: raw skill without assistance

No AI in screensTechnical bar

View live example

Automattic

First interview is Slack only: text, no video

Async interviewSlack

View live example

Duolingo

Blind recruitment, unconscious bias training, 50/50 gender ratio for SWE hires

Blind hiringDEI

View live example

Inside the loop

Interviews

What the middle of the process looks like when culture, craft, and founder time are treated as design choices.

Figma

Live jam sessions: pair programming, real design critiques, no take-homes

Live jamsNo take-homes

View live example

Revolut

Scores interviewers as well as candidates: feedback quality, consistency, alignment

Interviewer quality

View live example

Linear

Blind vote after work trial: independent feedback before group debrief

Blind voteWork trial

View live example

Supabase

Founders interview every candidate as the final stage

Founder interview

View live example

ElevenLabs

Founders interview every hire even at 880 people

Founder interviewScale

View live example

Prove it before the offer

Work trials

Paid trials, SuperDays, and short test projects that replace guesswork with real working signal.

Linear

Paid work trial, daily rate upfront, blind vote after

Paid trialBlind vote

View live example

PostHog

SuperDay: full day on a real problem, 80% time on task

SuperDayReal work

View live example

Cursor

Two-day in-person trial, real project, demo to team

In-person trialDemo

View live example

Automattic

2-8 week paid work trial alongside current job

Extended trialPaid

View live example

Gumroad

$100 paid test project before any commitment

Paid testLow friction

View live example

Closing without theatre

Offers

How transparent teams handle negotiation stance, early comp conversations, and high-touch closing.

Buffer

No negotiation: the formula is the offer

No negotiationFormula

View live example

Basecamp

No negotiation: the offer is the offer

No negotiation

View live example

Sourcegraph

No negotiation: four sign-offs required for any exception

No negotiationException governance

View live example

Linear

Comp discussed on call one: no late surprises

Early transparency

View live example

Loom

Made 200 personalised videos to hire one design manager

Personalised closingVideo

View live example

More open resources

Other free templates and diagnostics from Open Org.

Want help remixing these into your hiring process?

Build a hiring plan with AI

Bring your stage and constraints, then draft a job-ad-to-offer plan inspired by the ingredients above.

Hiring Cookbook by Open Org. Contribute a practice at hello@openorg.fyi.