[HN Gopher] Avoiding Unqualified Gatekeepers
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       Avoiding Unqualified Gatekeepers
        
       I've had a string of running across 'unqualified gatekeepers':
       people who have tremendous power over access to a certain resource,
       yet lack the knowledge to accurately discern how to grant such
       access. These bottlenecks are disturbing - and I pose the question
       to HN on what tactics you use to (i) circumvent these gatekeepers
       when you're attempting to gain access to a resource, as well as
       (ii) design organizations to prevent these from emerging.  In case
       its helpful, some examples of 'unqualified gatekeepers': 1.
       executive recruiters: a (young) recruiter at a prestigious
       headhunting firm recently told me how she dinged a candidate
       against all future consideration for a lack of 'executive presence'
       displayed in a 30 minute call 2. VCs in Specialty Fields: analysts
       with no work experience outside of VC screening complex enterprise
       startups 3. Admins / Chief of Staffs: Blocking access to calendars
       / agendas 4. Sales Teams: Account managers who zealously guard
       access to their customers from internal teams (e.g. product team
       needs feedback) 5. etc.  Worth noting that for the above roles
       there are dozens of people doing a great job for every one who's
       bad, but the bad ones are who I'm focused on.
        
       Author : sbarbarian
       Score  : 11 points
       Date   : 2022-10-04 19:55 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
       | f1shy wrote:
       | It really depends!
       | 
       | Some strategies I used:
       | 
       | - Get to be friend with them, chit-chat, so that they allow you
       | in
       | 
       | - Cut the middle-man, just step over them, talk to the boss
       | 
       | - Don't do fair play. Just lie, or trick them to get what you
       | want.
        
         | verdverm wrote:
         | These all seem underhanded and likely to create more problems
         | and corporate culture issues
        
           | lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote:
           | I can see that about 3, not really about 1, and not at all
           | about 2. Ideally, 2 wouldn't be necessary but I don't see how
           | that approach makes things worse, in particular when the
           | "middle-man" mentioned is accurately described as
           | "unqualified". There isn't any reason the person's conduct
           | (opinion-forming ability?) couldn't be discussed
           | constructively in such an instance.
           | 
           | Personally, 3 is a complete non-starter and I'd just spend my
           | efforts elsewhere.
        
             | aaron695 wrote:
        
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       (page generated 2022-10-04 23:02 UTC)