The rule could be used by other recruiters(Image: Getty Images)
When people apply for jobs, the interview is often the cause of the most anxiety. We’ve all heard the sweat-inducing theory that hiring managers make their decision within 15 seconds of someone walking into an interview, and despite looking out their smartest outfits, people can stress over the little things.
One former boss makes the little things part of his whole hiring strategy, but not in the way you expect. A former boss of an accounting software firm has revealed that he swore by a vital coffee rule during interviews, stating he wouldn’t hire anyone who failed his test.
He used the simple “coffee cup test” during every job interview as it shows a lot about a person’s “attitude”. Trent Innes claims he wouldn’t hire anyone who failed his test, and even went as far to say that anyone who failed under his watch would be blacklisted from the company, as reported in the Mirror.
Trent, who formerly worked Xero Australia but left in September 2021, previously shared his little trick while speaking on the business podcast The Venture with entrepreneur Lambros Photios.
Speaking on the podcast in 2019, he explained: “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 coffee cup’.”
He claims that this litmus test works, and the kitchens in their office are always very clean.
He goes on: “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.”
The move may be controversial for some, who believe that hiring someone should be based on merit, not a simple test like a coffee cup. However, Innes swore by it, and might have influenced further companies to take on the test.
The main thing to take away from this is to be on your toes around a future employer, take any hits as they come, and always be polite, it could mean the difference between walking away with a job or not.
