Forget stiff handshakes and rehearsed résumés - Steve Jobs had a very different approach to job interviews.
The late Apple co-founder wasn’t interested in formalities. Instead, he wanted authenticity, so he created what became known as the “beer test".
The goal of the beer test was to figure out whether the person sitting across from him was not only talented but someone he’d actually enjoy grabbing a drink with.
Jobs was famously unimpressed by candidates delivering polished, pre-prepared responses. To break through the act, he’d take interviews out of the office.
According to AS, he preferred walking meetings and even beer outings with potential employees. His guiding question was simple: “Would I have a beer with this person? Would I talk to him or her in a relaxed way while taking a walk?”
That question shaped the entire interview process. Rather than sitting behind a desk firing off the usual interview questions, Jobs would get to know candidates more casually.
A walk, a meal, and a drink gave insight into their personality - something hard to gauge under fluorescent office lights.
The late businessman’s questions weren’t about catching candidates off guard, they were about connection.
He’d ask informal things like, “What did you do last summer?” alongside more reflective ones like, “When was the last time you accomplished something?”
There were rarely right or wrong answers. Jobs simply wanted to see beyond the résumé and get a sense of the person behind the credentials. As the outlet reported, the idea was to sidestep the polished answers that dominate traditional interviews.
It also helped Jobs evaluate a more personal dynamic: Could he see himself working with this person day in and day out?
While the setting was casual, the stakes were still high. The tech mogul wasn’t lowering his standards, he was just changing the way he judged talent. He openly admitted he was always looking for what he called “A-Players".
“I found that when you get enough A-players together, when you go through the incredible job of finding these A-players, they really like working with each other,” he once said. “Because they’ve never had the chance to do it before.”
His approach clearly paid off as Apple grew into one of the most successful tech companies in the world, fueled in part by hiring not just the most skilled, but the most compatible team members.