A manager has revealed why he uses a coffee cup test in every interview and why he won’t hire anyone who fails it.
Job interviews are stressful at the best of times, aren’t they?
You’ve got so much to worry about, from making sure you set a good impression, to the all important question you really should be asking at the end.
But if things weren’t stressful enough, some companies even use some sneaky tactics to try and catch out applicants during the interview process.
While Steve Jobs might have had a heartwarming way to welcome new employees to his company, this boss is instead trying to trick potential new colleagues.
The boss uses the coffee cup test (Getty Stock Photo)
The trick was described by businessman Trent Innes, who is the former managing director of accounting platform Xeno, and now works as the chief growth officer at SiteMinder.
Speaking on the business podcast The Ventures, he said: “I will always take you for a walk down to one of our kitchens and somehow you always end up walking away with a drink.”
It seems as though you can’t turn down the option for a drink here, so an interviewee is going to be receiving a cup.
The boss continued: “Then we take that back, have our interview, and one of the things I’m always looking for at the end of the interview is, does the person doing the interview want to take that empty cup back to the kitchen?”
And the crux of the test is, if you don’t take the cup back to kitchen, then you’re not the right fit for the company.
Innes added: “You can develop skills, you can gain knowledge and experience, but it really does come down to attitude, and the attitude that we talk a lot about is the concept of ‘wash your coffee cup’.”
Job interviews have just gotten a whole lot trickier (Getty Stock Photo)
The businessman went on to explain that it’s all about fitting in with the ‘company culture’ at the office.
Taking your cup back to the kitchen is about doing the small things and being considerate essentially.
The boss added: “If you come into the office one day inside Xero, you’ll see the kitchens are almost always clean and sparkling and it’s very much off that concept of wash your coffee cup.
“It’s really just making sure that they’re actually going to fit into the culture inside Xero, and really take on everything that they should be doing.”