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

We have all been asked those stupidly random questions in interviews that potential employers think reveal something about our character.

Some people spend hours revising their CV or practising different questions that they could be asked in the run-up to a big interview, but this is something that no one could have predicted…

One person took to Reddit to share that their old boss used to base a whole interview outcome on something they liked to call the ‘salt and pepper’ test.

Alright Gordon Ramsay!

Erik Mclean on Unsplash

They 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."

Now that might just be the most random thing we have ever heard, how bored must this guy have been?

While the ex-employee wasn't one hundred percent sure on why their former boss put so much emphasis on this test, they believed it was to do with people trying 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 only boss with weird interview techniques.

The next one, however, has slightly more grounding.

Former boss of Xero Australia, Trent Innes, said that this interview-hack revealed everything he needed to know about a potential employee.

Getty stock image

Speaking 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.”

So some things to remember before your next interview:

Never put salt or pepper on your lunch before trying, and always wash up the coffee cup, and you know all the other unimportant stuff like how many years experience you have and your transferable skills.