Job interviews are incredibly stressful, even for the most seasoned, confident, and prepared candidates.
The modern job market demands a tonne of investment from the initial application through to the final-stage interview, often requiring multi-stage interviews and test tasks to prove competence.
That investment piles extra pressure onto candidates; after all, hours of effort could all be undone by one slip of the tongue or a poorly-articulated example of how you’ve previously demonstrated initiative in a fast-paced environment.
If those stressors weren’t enough to worry about, some companies and interviewers like to set additional invisible challenges to screen for their ideal candidate.
One such challenge comes courtesy of Trent Innes, former managing director at Xero and current Chief Growth Officer at SiteMinder.
He’s interviewed his fair share of candidates over the years, and he says that each one has faced his 'coffee cup' test.
"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,” he said during an appearance on business podcast The Ventures.
"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 coffee cup.'"
For Innes, this little pitfall is a make or break test that’s all about finding the right ‘cultural’ fit.
"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,” he said, having still been at Xero at the time.
"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."
While that one might be quite a specific recommendation - after all, nine times out of ten your interviewer will likely say not to worry about your water glass or coffee cup as you leave - let’s get some more universally-applicable advice in here.
It’s simple: be lovely to everyone you encounter in the office.
If you’re keen to make a good impression, don’t just save the niceties for whoever is doing the interviewing.
It might seem obvious, but it’s an all-too-common blunder.
"Today, a candidate blew his interview in the first 5 minutes after he entered the building,” said a Redditor.
"He was dismissive to the receptionist. She greeted him and he barely made eye contact. She tried to engage him in conversation. Again, no eye contact, no interest in speaking with her.
"What the candidate did not realise was that the 'receptionist' was actually the hiring manager.
"She called him back to the conference room and explained how every single person on our team is valuable and worthy of respect.
"Due to his interaction with the 'receptionist', the hiring manager did not feel he was a good fit. Thank you for your time but the interview is over.
"Be nice to everyone in the building."
Kerri-Ann Roper