A job interview is a nerve-racking experience at the best of times. You've got an hour or less to convince someone to make what could be a life-changing decision for you.
And if you think that everything you do is being closely judged, you may very well be right. Back in 2019 a top software boss revealed his "coffee cup trick" used to assess potential employees in job interviews.
At the time Trent Innes, then working for software firm Xero Australia, said he used the tactic in every single interview at the company. He said the trick will reveal how selfless the person being interviewed is, according to the Manchester Evening News.
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After widespread publicity for the idea when it surfaced it's possible other hiring bosses may have since adopted this technique to assess candidate's character - or they may have their own, so it pays to be on guard - before, during and after an interview.
How does the coffee cup test work?
Whenever someone comes in for an interview, Mr Innes said he'd deliberately take them on a tour past the kitchen and makes sure they walk away with a hot drink. After the interview is all done, he would then watch to see if the person offers or attempts to take the empty coffee/tea cup back to the kitchen.
If they just leave their cup at the table and leave, they won’t get the job. Speaking on a podcast, Trent Innes said at the time: ‘If you do come in and have an interview, as soon as you come in and you do meet me, 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.
"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?
"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 own coffee cup'."
According to an interview with The Australian Financial Review last year, he moved on from the company after eight and a half years to become CEO of a recruitment tech start-up.
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