Job interviews are a reality of life, and no matter how uncomfortable they can be, we all have to go through them.
They’re not exactly the most natural situations, are they?
From perfecting that first impression to coming up with good follow-up questions, there’s a lot to think about during an interview.
But some employers use subtle tactics to make their hiring decisions a bit easier.
One well-known method is the coffee cup test, where the employer watches to see if the candidate will return and wash their cup after using it.
The idea that you might ace an interview only to slip up on a hidden test you didn’t even know was happening? That’s a pretty scary thought.
It’s unsettling enough that people on Reddit started sharing these sneaky interview tests in the R/AskReddit forum.
One user posed the question: “Managers of Reddit, do you have special ‘tests’ for interviewees that you put them through without their knowing?”
The question attracted a lot of replies, but one story really grabbed people’s attention.
In the comments, a manager described a simple test that most of their job applicants would fail.
They explained: “I used to work in a cafe. The work was simple. I asked applicants to butter me a two slices of bread, and put a slice of cheese on it to make a sandwich. Those who failed to wash their hands first; failed.”
A curious Redditor asked the obvious question on everyone’s mind: “What was the pass rate?”
Someone else added: “I am scared to know,” and the manager answered with: “About 30 percent.”
That means a surprising 70 percent of people interviewing at the café didn’t wash their hands before touching food. Yikes.
Regardless of whether you’ve worked in hospitality before, it’s common sense that hygiene is incredibly important when handling food.
Meanwhile, another person on the thread shared a trick that a different manager would use to test job candidates.
This one was definitely more intense than the sandwich test.
They explained: “I interviewed with a company recently who told me about their process for interviewing sales engineers.”
“They would go about the normal interview, but that evening, they would all go out for drinks and try to pump the recruits full of alcohol.”
“It was meant to be fun, but also a test of whether the person can either know their limits and politely decline, or hold their own after a lot of drinks.”
The Reddit user continued: “Apparently, drinking is a big part of sales.”
