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13th Sep 2023

Boss uses ‘salt and pepper test’ during job interviews to judge a person’s character

Sophie Collins

job

BY Callum Boyle

This is a new one…

We’ve all been asked some pretty bizarre questions when interviewing for a job that prospective employers think show a lot about someone’s character.

Whether it be a scenario you’re given or something that has absolutely nothing to do with the job itself – it does leave you scratching your head.

One person on Reddit revealed possibly of the strangest assignments given during a job interview in which they assess the candidate via the ‘Salt and Pepper test’.

Explaining the process, they gave an insight into what you might expect if you’re ever asked to take on this test, which supposedly can tell your potential future boss what you are like as a person.

The user wrote: “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.”

This isn’t the only strange interview technique, with former Xero Australia boss, Trent Innes, revealing his interview hack when on The Venture podcast.

He said: “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.”

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