You might know them as the “GateKeeper” – the person you need to get past in an Interview to get to the next person on the list –
- the one you really want to talk to,
- the one who will really see you for who you really are,
- the one who knows the trees for the forest of what you are being interviewed for
But you have to get through the GateKeeper there so here’s the plan;
- Know they might not know everything about the “thing” you want to be doing.
- Appreciate that in this instance, they are the representative of the company.
- Realize that if you want this job, you won’t get it by giving them a toilet swirly and yelling at the top of your lungs that you are in the office and ready for your “real” interview.
The Gatekeeper test is the real interview – how do you treat something who has different hopes, desires, and worldviews than you do, can you break down to the simplest of structures what your interests are and how they can help the company and finally how can you get to the next level?
We dislike the Gatekeeper because it forces us to use a set of skills that we don’t use very often – salesmanship and humility – two things not common in a developer interview. But if you can get through, what you thought was the “real” interview will be easier than you had originally thought.
