When it comes to job applications, many candidates take hours to perfect their CV and rehearse potential interview responses.
However, for one employer, qualifications and experience take a backseat to how candidates handle his unique "salt and pepper test."
A Reddit user shared their experience with a former boss who relied on what they referred to as the "salt and pepper test" to judge a person’s character.
One person said "A company I used to work for does all-day interviews with multiple people, and one of them is always a lunch interview. I heard about a guy who would base his entire decision on one thing - whether or not the person he was interviewing tried their food before reaching for salt, pepper, hot sauce, etc. If you didn't try your food first, you didn't get a pass from him."
The ex-employee couldn't pinpoint the exact reason why their former boss attached such importance to this test, but they speculated it might relate to assessing how individuals approached something without judging it first.
They added: “Glad I didn't interview with him because I pretty much always add pepper to stuff."
But this isn't the sole instance of unusual interview techniques by employers. Prior to this case, the former boss of Xero Australia, Trent Innes claimed that this interview tactic provided comprehensive insights into prospective employees.
He had a strict policy when it came to his 'coffee cup test,' so he wouldn't hire anyone who failed it because he believed it revealed more about a person's attitude than any interview question possibly could. At his company, a candidate's suitability for a position was determined by whether they passed his test; however, anyone who didn't meet its criteria was immediately disqualified."
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.
