Most job candidates walk into interviews armed with polished answers, rehearsed weaknesses, and a list of researched questions aimed to impress. But Apple’s Steve Jobs reportedly had a far less conventional way of deciding who got hired: the “beer test.”
Instead of trying to catch candidates out with a trick question or quizzing them on the latest iPhone, the late cofounder of the $4.3 trillion tech giant wanted to know something much simpler: Would he actually enjoy grabbing a beer with them?
According to multiple reports, Jobs would even take candidates on an informal walk-and-talk interview to deliberately test whether he could get along with them outside the office. The so-called “beer test” wasn’t really about alcohol. It was about seeing whether a candidate could drop the corporate act long enough to have an actual conversation—and be pleasant to be around.
As AS USA reported, Jobs would ask potential hires questions like, “What did you do last summer?” to get the conversation going. There were no right or wrong answers, but it probably wasn’t good news if the chat was awkward, draining, or nonexistent.
That’s because at the end of the saga, Jobs would ask himself: “Would I have a beer with this person? Would I talk to him or her in a relaxed way while taking a walk?” If the answer was no, that told him something a résumé couldn’t.
