🙋♀️ Who Reviews Your Resume?
👩💻 Sourcer
A Sourcer’s main role is to find potential candidates on LinkedIn who fit open positions (outbound candidates), reach out to them, and encourage them to apply, before handing them off to the recruiter.
Sourcers often share some of the recruiter’s duties, especially when there’s high competition for developer roles. Large companies or well-funded organizations typically employ sourcers alongside recruiters.
The primary goal of a sourcer is to fill the recruitment pipeline with qualified candidates, usually aiming to meet specific targets.
💁♀️ Inbound Sourcer
An Inbound Sourcer reviews and evaluates candidates who have applied to the company’s job postings. Large companies that receive thousands of applications for each position typically use Inbound Sourcers. Like Sourcers, they help lighten the recruiter’s workload. In some companies, Inbound Sourcers also evaluate referred candidates.
🙋♀️ Recruiter
A Recruiter serves as the main point of contact between the candidate and the company, managing all communication throughout the hiring process.
Since most companies don’t have separate Sourcers or Inbound Sourcers, recruiters often take on these responsibilities as well. They source outbound candidates, review resumes from inbound applicants, and conduct recruiter calls. After these calls, they assess the candidates and forward their resumes to the hiring manager.
A recruiter’s main goal is to fill open positions requested by the hiring manager, ensuring that candidates meet the required criteria and have a strong chance of succeeding in the interview process.
When communicating with a recruiter, it’s crucial to convey confidence and present your skills and experience in a way that makes them think, “This candidate can definitely ace the interview.”
Don’t think of the recruiter as just a middleman between you and the company; they play a crucial role in the hiring process. If you don’t clearly highlight your qualifications, you might not make it past the recruiter stage, even if you’re fully qualified for the role.
No matter how strong your qualifications are, you won’t get an interview unless the recruiter moves your resume forward to the hiring manager. That’s why it’s crucial to maintain professionalism—especially by honoring scheduled appointments—and to treat the recruiter with respect throughout the entire process.
Recruiters can be employed in various ways:
- Full-time employees of the company.
- Contract-based (temporary) employees of the company.
- Employees of a staffing agency contracted by the company.
Knowing a recruiter’s affiliation through LinkedIn beforehand can help you tailor your approach. For instance, if the recruiter is a full-time employee, you can ask more specific questions about the team or company culture, showing your interest while gaining valuable insights.
Recruiters assess not just your skills and experience but also your genuine interest in the company and team. They want to ensure that interview opportunities go to candidates who are truly excited about joining, as this helps save time and resources for both the recruiter and the company.
👩⚖️ Hiring Manager
The hiring manager is the key decision-maker in the resume evaluation process. They are responsible for creating the job description, opening the position, setting the hiring process, and making the final call on whether to hire a candidate.
Sourcers, inbound sourcers, and recruiters all operate based on the hiring manager’s criteria when finding, contacting, and assessing candidates. While some large companies may have a hiring committee make the final call, in most cases, the hiring manager has the most influence. Even though they may need to report to higher-ups or get approval from the CTO or CEO, the hiring manager usually holds the primary decision-making power.
🕵️♀️ Interviewer
Interviewers (also known as the Interview Panel) may not evaluate resumes directly, but they prepare interview questions based on the resume. In live coding interviews, the focus might not be on the resume, but in most other interviews, interviewers will have reviewed your resume beforehand. Therefore, it’s wise to prepare with the assumption that the interviewer is familiar with your resume.