What Is the 'Coffee Cup Test'? Watch Out For This Tricky Interview Trend. Some people find this recent hiring trend impractical, while others think it's a sign of character. Either way, here's what you should know about it.
By Jason Feifer Edited by Mark Klekas
Key Takeaways
- The test measures the importance of personal responsibility and neatness.
- It also has generated mixed reactions.
- Everything you do during an interview matters.
Imagine you're interviewing for a new job. You arrive at the office, the hiring manager greets you, and then walks you into the kitchen to offer a refreshment.
You might be getting set up for the "coffee cup test" — an interview technique that's gotten a lot of attention on social media. Some say it's a great way to test how considerate a candidate is; others say it's an empty trick that says more about the interviewer than it does the interviewee.
So what is the test, and what should you do if you're confronted with it? Read on.
What is the test?
The test goes like this:
You're given a cup in the office kitchen. Then you're taken into another room for the interview. At the end of the interview, the hiring manager watches to see what you do with the cup.
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If you just leave it there, that's bad — and you probably won't get the job. If you take the cup back to the kitchen, you just scored major points.
The test was described by Trent Innes, a former managing director of the accounting software company Xero Australia, in a 2019 episode of the podcast "The Ventures."
"You can develop skills, you can gain knowledge and experience, but it really comes down to attitude, and the attitude that we talk about is the concept of 'wash your own coffee cup,'" Innes said on the show. "You really want to make sure that you've got people who have got a real sense of ownership, and that's really what I was looking for."
Reactions to the test
The 2019 episode with Innes was recently recirculated online, and it drove a wave of stories and reactions.
Some people said the test is simply impractical: "So he lets random people wander through the building back to whatever kitchen they were at? I mean, come on," one person wrote on Reddit.
But others say it's a good test of character.
"I love it. I feel like that should be implemented everywhere," said Medha Gandhi, a cohost on the nationally syndicated Elvis Duran Show. "Pick up after yourself. Put stuff back where you got it from."
To which someone in the YouTube comments replied: "Dumbest thing I've ever heard. You're really going to turn away a competent and qualified candidate over a lesser-skilled one simply because of neatness? And what if they just forget? Interviews are stressful."
What you should do in interviews
There's no way to tell how common the coffee cup test is — but like many things on the internet, it's likely being blown way out of proportion. A 2019 podcast interview spawned a lot of social media chatter, but that doesn't mean it also inspired a lot of hiring managers to run the test.
Still, everyone probably has some story of being hired — or not! — because of something they said or did.
So what should you do when you're being interviewed?
It's simple: Remember that everything you do is being evaluated.
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Don't view this as rudeness. Consider it a natural part of the process. After all, hiring managers are performing a difficult task: They're trying to decide who is best for a job, based on brief and structured interactions with many different candidates.
It's easy to find people with the right skills for a job. It's much harder to find someone who fits into a company's culture, shares its values, and will be a productive and creative member of a team.
When you keep this in mind, you actually have an advantage — because you can outperform other candidates by being more thoughtful and authentic than them. Many people may have the same skills as you, but not everyone is you. So when you lead with that, you improve your chances of winning.
And if you're given a cup during the interview? At least ask if you can put it back where it came from. That's just being nice.
