'I thought I'd aced the job interview. Then I realised I failed a hidden test.'

When Chelsea left her job interview, she was feeling good. The chat had been a success and she was hit with a beautiful wave of relief that it was all over.

But as she stood on the train platform replaying the meeting in her head, a sudden realisation crept in.

She'd failed a subtle test.

Watch: BIZ host Em Vernem on how she found work-life balance. Post continues after video.

"When you thought your job interview went well, but then you realise you failed the coffee cup test," Chelsea shared on TikTok.

If you've never heard of this tactic, you're not alone. The post was inundated with the same question: "What on earth is the coffee cup test?"

Let's break it down.

What is the coffee cup test in job interviews?

The coffee cup test is a hiring strategy that was designed by Trent Innes when he was the Managing Director of Xero.

He explained in every job interview, he will take the candidates for a walk to the kitchen and offer them a drink: coffee, tea, water, soft drink, anything.

"Then we take that back and have our interview … and one thing I'm always looking for is, at the end of the interview, is that the person doing the interview wants to take their empty cup back to the kitchen?" he explained on The Venture podcast in 2019.

He said the idea behind the test is that a candidate can gain skills, knowledge and experience, "but it really comes down to attitude".

"What I was trying to find was what was the lowest level task I could find that regardless of what you do inside the organisation was still super important."

According to Innes, all you really have to do to pass the test is simply offer to put the cup back, rather than follow through.

Chelsea, who knew of the test, realised too late she had left her cup in the interview room. 

Whether the hiring manager was implementing Innes' coffee cup test remains to be seen. But Chelsea had still felt like she failed in some way.

@chelsea.pixels job interviews are an olympic sport #unemployed #jobinterview #jobsearch #australia #fyp ♬ original sound - ava

'More of a mind game than a tactic.'

The video has generated a big discussion online about the tactic.

"I don't even know where the kitchen is, dude, where am I gonna put the cup?" one person wrote.

"When did job interviews turn into psychological tests?" another added.

Jess Gleeson, a HR Consultant at Becoming HR, called the test "more of a mind game than a tactic".

"If you think of an interview as part of the hiring process, it's the last hurdle that a candidate has to jump in order to land the role. In most cases, they've already jumped so many hurdles to get to that point, failing to ask what to do with a coffee cup is not part of their character evaluation," Gleeson told Mamamia.

She added that interviews are stressful environments, and a good interviewer should understand this and give the candidate some grace.

"From the employee's perspective, depending on how they are feeling if they are nervous and not at their best, trying to focus on showing up and demonstrating all the items they need to do is much more important than putting a glass away."

In some instances, an interview is purely to "consolidate already pre-conceived ideas" or a candidate based on their application.

The 'coffee cup' test has sparked debate online. Image: Getty.

"There is also the wider context of where the interview is being held," Gleeson added. "Is it in a space where the potential employee can clean up after themselves? Obviously, if the final decision comes down to whether someone puts a cup away or not, then you'd need to think about the integrity of the hiring process and the role being conducted, as that test alone wouldn't measure capability or capacity - unless it was a role for housekeeping."

It is also important to flip the script and remember job interviews are just as much for the candidate to evaluate the workplace.

"If those are the type of tactics they are showcasing from the start of the relationship, what are they prepared to do during the relationship and beyond?" Gleeson said.

"The old saying of 'start how you intend to continue', if you start on a bad foot, and there are red flags, it's highly likely that they'll continue throughout your employment."

At the end of the day, transparency is key.

"As a business, you've got the freedom to create your own process. Why not be transparent in what that looks like? Why the secret tactic?" Gleeson suggested.

"By not telling people what the process is, what are you hoping to achieve? Catch someone out? To me that raises questions about the organisational culture. Is it one of trust? Is it one where things are discussed behind closed doors? Is it one where you'll be questioning what's happening around you?"

Speaking about the "coffee cup test" on Mamamia Out Loud, Mia Freedman said she approached job interviews in a different fashion.

"The thing I hate most in the world is doing job interviews, which is why I don't do them anymore and haven't for a long time," she said.

Listen to the full episode below. Post continues afterwards.

"But what I used to do is just see how people react. It doesn't matter what you talk about. At first, when I was with someone else, they'd be like, 'We've got to get onto the interview, why were you talking about that?' And I'm like, 'I just want to see what they're like'. I don't make a decision based on that, but it's just an extra data point."

She also shared some tips that have helped her in past interviews.

"Don't talk too much about your personal life. Keep it top line so when someone asks you a question, don't be too honest. I know there's that thing of bringing your whole self to work, but don't bring your whole self to a job interview."

Feature Image: TikTok/@chelsea.pixels/Getty.