A manager has shared why he includes a “coffee cup test” in every job interview and why he won’t consider anyone who doesn’t pass it.
Job interviews can be nerve-wracking, even in the best of circumstances, right?
You’ve got a lot on your mind—from trying to make a solid first impression to coming up with that one key question you should ask before wrapping up.
And, as if things weren’t challenging enough, some companies throw in a few extra moves to see how applicants handle unexpected situations during the interview process.
While some bosses, like Steve Jobs, were known for welcoming new employees in warm and friendly ways, this manager has a different approach, testing potential new hires with a subtle trick.
Businessman Trent Innes, the former managing director of the accounting platform Xero and now chief growth officer at SiteMinder, explained this tactic.
Speaking on the business podcast The Ventures, he described it as follows: “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 sounds like there’s no option to decline the drink, so an interviewee will always be given 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?”
The essence of the test is simple: if you don’t take that cup back to the kitchen, you’re not the right fit for the team.
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’.”
He went on to explain that this test is all about seeing how well a person fits into the “company culture” at the office.
Returning your cup to the kitchen shows thoughtfulness in the little things—essentially, it’s about being considerate.
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.”
