A Career Tribute, commonly known simply as a Career, is a tribute who trains throughout their lives to compete in the Hunger Games and then volunteers to participate. Typically, Careers come from the wealthier districts, 1, 2, and 4, where being a tribute is seen as a great honor. The Careers in the 74th Hunger Games were led by Cato. In the 75th Hunger Games, there was no known leader of the Career alliance (which was made up of Brutus, Enobaria, Gloss, and Cashmere).

Career TributesEdit

Career Tributes tend to be the strongest, most agile players in the Hunger Games, having been prepared and trained since birth. Even though training tributes before the Games begin is technically illegal, the Career districts generally get away with this because of their wealth and closer ties to the the Capitol. The willingness to kill their opponents before the Games even start, cultivated from years of preparation and the support of their families and fellow district citizens, gives Careers a tremendous mental and psychological advantage over the other tributes.

These tributes volunteer to participate in the Games, causing much more commotion during the reaping than necessary. In the other districts and especially in the poorer ones such as District 11 and 12, becoming a volunteer tribute is viewed as sheer suicide. But in Career districts, volunteering is very common. Everyone wants to win the Games, even if it means volunteering. In wealthy districts, victors are regarded as heroes and amass great fame after winning the Games. In the movie, the Careers are very "chatty." Glimmer and Clove run around mocking tributes they are going to kill or have killed. This is in contrast to the novels, where the Career Tributes are generally more stealthy and menacing.

Prior to the start of each Hunger Games, Careers generally begin to form an alliance among themselves, which will cooperate when the Games get underway to secure weapons and supplies and take out common opponents. This gives the Careers an edge during the bloodbath as they already have a strategy in place to carry out and do not need to worry about being killed by each other. However, once all the other tributes are out of the way, they begin to turn on each other.

In the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss killed the Career Tributes, Glimmer, and the District 4 female (not in the movie) when Katniss dropped the nest of Tracker Jackers on the Career alliance, and Marvel, who was shot in the neck (heart in the movie) by her arrow. Cato was technically killed by Katniss with an arrow to the head to put him out of his misery when being mauled by wolf-like muttations, and Clove was killed by Thresh when she was about to kill Katniss. Thresh did so to avenge Rue's death. In the Cornucopia bloodbath the District 4 male (not a Career in the movie) was unusually killed in the bloodbath. It is unknown how they were killed, although Careers dying in the bloodbath is not typical.

Despite their edge in preparation for the Games, Careers have some severe disadvantages. Being well fed their entire lives, they are not as used to going hungry as tributes who have spent their lives in poverty and are very reliant on securing the supplies from the Cornucopia. Another disadvantage to them from being well fed their entire lives is their presumed heavy weight, making it difficult to climb trees or chase a particularly light and speedy person. They usually are very arrogant and tend to underestimate their opponents, therefore they may not think before acting.

Career DistrictsEdit

District 1, District 2, and District 4 tend to be the Career districts, although other tributes are allowed to join if they show exceptional skill. These districts are richer and have more supplies than other districts, giving a huge advantage to their tributes and allowing them to prepare and train. Katniss once pointed out a common weakness of the Careers: the Careers couldn't handle lack of food. Another weakness, which sometimes leads to their downfall, is their arrogance which is explained by Haymitch in the film.

These districts normally have an elaborate way of choosing volunteers, as they have no lack of them.

In The Hunger Games film, District 4 is not a Career district, so the only Careers are Glimmer, Marvel, Clove and Cato.

74th Hunger Games Career PackEdit

In the 74th Hunger Games, the Career Pack consisted of seven members. The female tribute from District 4, the boy from District 3, Cato, Clove, Marvel, Glimmer, and Peeta (except for the male tribute from District 4 who died at the Cornucopia). The group teamed up with Peeta to find Katniss. The pack didn't fare too well, however, as the boy from District 4 died in the bloodbath on the first day. Not long after, Glimmer and the District 4 girl were killed by tracker jacker stings, the result of a tracker jacker nest dropped on them by Katniss. As Katniss went to retrieve Glimmer's bow, Cato saw Peeta aid Katniss in her escape. This led Cato to severely wound Peeta's leg and abandon him, lowering the pack's number to four. The group included the boy from District 3 because he could reactivate the land mines.

When Katniss blew up the Careers supplies, Cato killed the boy from District 3 out of anger. Shortly after, Marvel speared Rue, and Katniss killed him in vengeance by shooting an arrow into his neck. At the feast, Thresh bashed Clove's head with a rock (hits her head on the wall of the Cornucopia in the movie). Cato was the last Career left, left in a flurry of bloodlust. He made it to the final three until Katniss kills him out of mercy while he is being torn apart by muttations.

75th Hunger Games Career PackEdit

In the 75th Hunger Games, or the third Quarter Quell, the Career Pack originated with Enobaria & Brutus from District 2, and Gloss & Cashmere from District 1. There were no careers from District 4 (which is usually a part of the career pack), as Finnick and Mags teamed up with Katniss and Peeta. Once Cashmere and Gloss were killed by Katniss and Johanna, Brutus and Enobaria hid until the end. Then, Peeta killed Brutus after watching him kill Chaff, and Enobaria was taken by the Capitol.

Known CareersEdit

• Peeta - Joined careers for to protect his alliance with Katniss, then turned on them.
• Cato - Leader of the 74th Hunger Games Career Pack (killed by Katniss using her final arrow out of mercy.)
• Clove (killed by Thresh with a rock smashed over her head at the Feast in the 74th Hunger Games.)
• Marvel (earned himself an arrow in the neck by Katniss after he threw a spear into Rue, who died several minutes later in the 74th Hunger Games.)
• Glimmer (killed by Tracker Jackers, thrown by Katniss in the 74th Hunger Games.)
• Cashmere (Victor; killed by Johanna who threw an axe in her chest after her brother, Gloss, killed Wiress in the 75th Hunger Games.)
• Gloss (Victor; killed by Katniss by an arrow in the temple after he slit Wiress' throat in the 75th Hunger Games.)
• Brutus (Victor; killed by Peeta after Brutus killed Chaff in the 75th Hunger Games.)
• Enobaria (Victor; captured by the Capitol after the 75th Hunger Games, yet still living.)
• District 3 male (74th HG) (killed by Cato by him snapping his neck. He was not from the Career District but he earned his place in the Career Pack by reactivating the mines around the Cornucopia.)
• District 4 female (74th HG) (killed by tracker jackers, thrown by Katniss in the 74th Hunger Games. In the film, she wasn't a part of the Careers and was killed by Cato in the bloodbath.)
• District 1 female (50th HG) (killed by her own axe when Haymitch ducked and the axe rebounded off the forcefield and buried itself in her head.)
• Finnick Odair (Victor; decapitated by lizard mutts in the Battle of the Capitol.)
• Annie Cresta (Victor; captured by the Capitol to hurt Finnick, still living.)
• Mags (Victor; died in the 75th Hunger Games when she sacrificed herself by walking into paralyzed fog.)
• District 4 male (killed in the initial bloodbath; in the film he wasn't a part of the Careers and was killed by Cato.)
• Lyme (killed in battle after Katniss was shot during the rebellion.)