Today, yes probably a lot of people participate in hiring decisions. But in 2002, not so much.

If you're actually curious there is a good book on SpaceX early days.

Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/53402132-liftoff

If you read the book I think you'll agree, desperate is the correct word in the title of that book and Elon did plenty.

I still can't believe they're landing rockets backwards. When I took control systems it was the canonical example of an unstable system. Guess those books need updating. :)