👔 The cast

You should know about the people in charge of hiring you. This course mentions them a lot so here’s the cast of characters you’ll encounter:

Recruiters

Recruiters are the gatekeepers. They’re in charge of _sourcing_ candidates: Finding potential hires, then filtering out job applications, and making initial phone calls (phone screens), so that they have a handful of people to bring in for job interviews. They’re doing the heavy lifting of finding potential candidates for multiple open roles at the same time. That means recruiters are very busy and are the first folks to review your resume, portfolio, or other materials. They are the initial decision-makers when it comes to offering you an interview. You’ll likely email with them and talk to them on the phone.

You want them on your side. You want them advocating for you. At best they can also help you negotiate for more money (they know how the budgets). 😏 They also have an incentive to get you into the interview stage: If they can fill this role with a new hire, they don’t have to recruit for this role anymore (less work for them).

Depending on a variety of factors, some recruiters will be eager to get you hired and other ones won’t be interested at all. You won’t know until you meet them, so set your expectations low and it’ll all work out. Just have a little empathy for their busy schedules and limited attention spans.

Hiring managers, middle managers, or just plain managers

Hiring managers are in charge of a small team of people. They’re most likely your future boss. They’ll take a more detailed approach when it comes to reviewing your materials. By the time they see your resume you’ve already gone through an initial phone screen with a recruiter, so you won’t be meeting hiring managers initially, unless they reach out to you…

Depending on the company, hiring managers may also responsible for sourcing candidates. So you might find a hiring manager messaging you directly to see if you’re interested in working with (under) them. Recruiters might be sourcing candidates for many different departments, but hiring managers only source for the open roles within their team.

If you decide to complete a formal interview, a hiring manager will very likely be interviewing you one-on-one, in addition to supervising the group interviews where you might present a case study to the entire team. The final decision to hire you most likely boils down to the hiring manager’s opinion of you. They want someone friendly and competent, so show ‘em.

Executives, directors, vice presidents, CEOs, or founders

This is the boss of the hiring manager. Your manager’s manager. They’re in charge of the entire department you might be working at. Executives usually play a somewhat inactive role during your hiring process. The’ll be kind of participating from the sidelines during your job hunting process unless you’re interviewing at the management level.

My mom was the “Executive Director of HR” so she would regularly attend many different types of interviews. If you think the hiring manager has the power to hire you (or not), my mom could tell if they were gonna hire someone within the first 5 minutes of their interview. Executives have _decades of experience_ so they can smell a low quality candidate from a mile away. But with this experience also typically means they’re usually workaholics. No shade.

Executives steer the ship forward, everyone else follows behind. If you get the sense from an executive (or a manager) that they’re kind of an asshole, they probably are. You’re not going to like working there. You’ll learn in later lessons how to decide if you want to work somewhere (or not).

## Current employees, co-workers, team members

These are the folks you might be working with! You might be tasked with interviewing with one of them or a few of them as a group. They were in your shoes once, maybe even just a few months ago. You might be reaching out to them to ask for a job referral. You might be asking them what it’s like to work there. They’re usually friendly but have busy schedules too.

Employees who interview you will also likely have a role in your hiring decision. Send out good vibes and you’ll get them in return. If you’re tired of interviewing, they’ll understand. If you have questions about how to start a career in this industry, they’ll share their story. A lot of friends are made at work, so be a good friend! 🤜🤛

### Additional resources

- 🎬 Want to know the absurdity of life at a corporate job? Watch **[Office Space](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/office-space/umc.cmc.6jlilk9yf1ozlv281w6rnw5pu)**

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