7 Secret Tests Used to Assess Candidate Qualities in Job Interviews

Nowadays, just reviewing a candidate’s resume and conducting an interview is no longer enough to find the ideal employee for a job vacancy. Thus, employers need to use various tricks to be able to test it secretly. And most of them are so simple, you might fail and not even realize you were being tested. Secret job interview tests and how they work are the subject of this post.

we, from awesome.club, we are surprised that even an offer for coffee or tea can sometimes be part of a test that will decide the candidate’s fate. Never run the risk of failing one of them again, check it out!

Recently, the “cup of coffee” test has gained increasing popularity among employers: at the beginning of the interview, the interviewer leads the candidate to the pantry and offers a cup of coffee or tea. And after the interview, he watches carefully what the candidate is going to do with the cup: ask him where to leave it, just leave it on his desk, or take it back to the pantry and wash it.

Trent Innes, director of accounting software development at the company Xero Australia, was the creator of this test. He assures you that this trick can say more about a person’s character and upbringing than their answers to the interviewer’s questions. And at the same time, it can demonstrate how quickly the candidate will fit into the team. So, the most correct decision is to return to the pantry and wash your coffee cup after the interview.

The coffee cup experiment can be considered a test that does not cause inconvenience to the candidate. Let’s face it, everything is much more difficult when we have an interview scheduled for 9 am and, even having arrived at the office at the right time, it is necessary to wait for the famous “10 minutes” longer, because the interviewer is busy. Oh, and it doesn’t stop there: often the 10 minutes are followed by another request of “just 10 more minutes, please”, and so on.

This test can demonstrate a candidate’s emotional stability in stressful situations, as well as how much they want the job.

Raising your voice, yelling and even, in some situations, swearing is another test to simulate stressful situations and assess how the candidate reacts to them and if he loses his temper easily. Experts recommend staying calm and answering questions as calmly as possible, demonstrating emotional stability.

The unpleasant “surprises” for candidates are not over yet — the interviewer can take a test in the form of a somewhat unusual request, such as jumping out of a window. In these cases, the employer wants to assess your ability to think “outside the box”.

You can get out of this situation in the following way: carefully climb onto the windowsill and jump into the office where you are having the interview, after all, no one said to jump out of the building, right? Or you can turn the situation in your favor by asking your boss counter-proposals and questions, “disarming” him. For example: “What would the company gain from my jump?”. Here what counts is creativity and negotiation.

Another technique used to test the candidate — sudden bad behavior by the interviewer. He may ignore the interviewee, paying attention only to the computer, or, during the interview, answer a phone call and leave the office, leaving the candidate there alone waiting.

This test allows you to assess the creativity of the interviewee in order to attract the attention of customers and to get out of this situation. One of the most effective variants is to ask the administrator to postpone your interview to another day.

It is possible that, after the interview, the boss will invite the candidate to introduce him to his possible future co-workers. This can happen in the office, in an environment outside of work, or even in a specific situation or event (like a company event). This is not just a nice gesture from the employer, but a way of evaluating the interviewee, so that he can know how the work team felt about the candidate and take this into account when hiring him.

Another test that can help an employer identify and select friendlier and more sympathetic candidates is dropping a pen. The interviewer purposely drops a pen just to gauge the candidate’s reaction. If he instinctively leans in to pick it up, he will likely be accepted for the spot; but if you let the employer take it, your chances will drop dramatically.

Have you ever passed any of these tests without knowing you were being evaluated? Tell us in the comments section.