I'm sure at least some of you are aware of the current cross generational argument: whether is is acceptable to take an iced coffee to a job interview?
For me, the answer is a hard no. I wouldn't go to an interview with a hot coffee, a cold coffee or probably even a water bottle. The water bottle because I grew up in a world where people didn't hydrate every two minutes and I still don't have an emotional support water bottle. I wouldn't take coffee because I just don't think it's appropriate. To be honest, I'm at a level of old lady grouchiness that I am quietly irritated when people stroll in to church (less formal than an initerview) slurping coffee.
I asked my son (who has been on interview panels) what he would think of a candidate showing up with an iced coffee and he looked at me like the dinosaur I am and told me it's all about the right fit for the role.
I have never been interviewer, just interviewee, so I can't say if an iced coffee would be a deal breaker but it definitely would be part of my overall impression.
What do you think?
Simply, you don't eat in public. And that includes drinking coffee while you are walking. Going to a job interview with coffee in hand is unthinkable to me, but then I am old.
ReplyDeleteI was never taught not to eat in public, although we didnt really have opportunity to anyway. Coffee in an interview seems disrespectful to me.
DeleteYou grew up in a world where people didn't hydrate every two minutes. I laughed along with you.
ReplyDeleteThe tea-break was important in my day. Jobs as a schoolboy and student. I was aye thirsty.
Strikes occurred when managers shortened tea-breaks. My trades unionist father backed the workers.
As a journalist I could have coffee any time I wanted. In the office. Out the office.
I'm with your son, Kylie. I like the idea of going into an interview with a drink. No Coffee To Go in my day.
INTERVIEW/ SHORT FILM. GILES CHAN. YouTube.
Nicoletta Dimas is the young woman seeking work. The perspiration on her face is real.
Warren Lyons is the chief interviewer. Patient, watchful, ruthless. I'd like your reading of this Oz film.
I enjoy these shorts. Omeletto does many.
I'll find the film before I comment further, Jack
DeleteI watched during my lunch break. It nails the opaque questioning, the new grad interview uniform and the mind bending nerves.
DeleteI really enjoyed it.
I do not agree with taking a beverage of any kind into an interview. It is kind if an interviewee offers water, which should be accepted, but first impressions matter. Once you have landed a job and drinks are part of the work day then have all the iced coffee you want, but until then a little restraint is in order.
ReplyDeleteI laughed at the emotional support water bottle!
I must credit my daughter who calls her water bottle her emotional support 🙂
DeleteThat is just bizarre to me. I think you might be right in tracing it back to water bottles.
ReplyDeleteI would spill it, for sure.
DeleteApart from the ignorance of a slurp slurp or a chomp chomp, there is a high risk of spillage due to interview nerves, unfamiliar territory ad infinitum. I was reared being told never to eat in public. No one wants to see the inside of one's mouth or the drool or spittle. We have taken casual too far, methinks. Maybe I'm just oooooold.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
I thought i would be able to roll with the times forever but a silly coffee has ended that!
DeleteI think bringing a coffee into an interview looks a bit sloppy and as if you aren't taking the interview very seriously. If that makes me old-fashioned so be it.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we were all trained to be obsequious?
DeleteIced coffee at an interview would surprise me and probably appear too casual for such a context but as your son says it is all about the fit for the job. What I find harder to get by are face piercings and many tattoos. I think body scarification is harder to adjust to for many of my generation. For instance, metal balls and rings through noses (looks like snot to me) and lips (think of all the orthodontic work that many young people have had just to bash their enamel about) and ‘sleeves’ of tattoos. So an iced coffee is probably not so important to me but a more of a blip in self presentation. Obviously manners and mores are cultural and subject to change. It’s interesting to see how. Mostly I enjoy being an observer of such changes. We always got our children to ask themselves these questions: is it safe, is it ethical, is it moral, is it permanent? And that’s still where I like to stand. Helen
ReplyDeleteI dont love facial piercings and neck or face tatts bother me but I have met many highly competent professionals with either or both so my biases are weakened 😊
DeleteI'm the dinosaur. The last hiring I was involved in was about 1993.
ReplyDeleteNone of us are Milennials or Gen Y, Red so we likely all qualify as dinosaurs
DeleteAcceptable to take an iced coffee to a job interview? No, especially if you spill coffee on your white shirt or a piece of ice falls out of your mouth! Coffee can be drunk AFTER the interview, and in the _proper_ coffee area.
ReplyDeleteA coffee would be my reward for a great interview or for bravery 🙂
DeleteI don't think it is appropriate to turn up with any kind of drink in hand. I have been to an interview where I carried water, but kept the bottle inside my bag, so I could drink when back outside waiting for the bus to get home. The interviewer wanted someone who could start immedialtely after the company's upcoming two week break. I said I could be there at 7.30 the very next morning. I got the job.
ReplyDeleteI never would - I'd spill it everywhere - I shake when I'm nervous.
ReplyDeleteSx