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Sorry, but I’m bringing my iced coffee to the job interview
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this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2026
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I am a hiring manager for a small engineering team. I don't think I would notice as long as there wasn't extra attention drawn to the drink for some reason.
It's a stupid reason to not hire someone, it's a stupid reason to not get hired. Best to avoid the whole thing. People are so worried about how they should be able to do whatever they want, but people have been passed over for less. If you can afford to miss out on a job, go nuts.
Same. I am going to start talking about how much I fucking love iced coffee in phone screens from now on.
If some HR fuckwit wants to make this a thing then I will allocate a solid portion of my smug to it.
If you accidentally spill coffee everywhere, you've just brought a lot of extra attention to it. Best not to risk it.
as someone who has also been involved hiring for engi roles
i would give zero shits, long as the person was pleasant in resolving the accident
if anything being able to see their behaivor under stress is a good thing
As an engineer, if you were offered drinks and you ask for decaf coffee, you'd probably get judged more than if it was just water. And this is coming from someone that drinks a fair bit of decaf
lord help tour company if tour hiring agents care more about that than ability
it’s because you want a talented individual
this shits from fortune 500 hr gits hiring warm bodies
Having needed to hire for engineering teams, I think the iced coffee would be a big deal if the position was client facing and wouldn't be if it was internal.
The answer for me of "who defines professionalism" is the client. If the effective end client is me, I don't care. I'm pretty lax and chill.
However, if I'm hiring for a client facing role and you bring an iced coffee, you are saying that you don't know or don't care about client expectations and that is a red flag. I work in an industry where it is still the expectation to wear a suit and tie to certain client meetings. If you can't play the game with me, how can I trust you to play the game with the client?
You mean the client expectations which were created last week over a fake social media controversy by people who literally have nothing better to do than shitpost on LinkedIn? Sorry we do enough actual work that we aren't up on LinkedIn meta.
Brother, I promise you I can sell a customer on the idea that we are just that fucking good, that our iced coffee rebellion is exactly what they are looking for. Because we actually are very fucking good at what we do.
No. I just know to not being a drink into a client meeting. Throw it out beforehand.
People promise things all the time.
I have been working professionally, at a high level for 20 years and have never heard any commentary about bringing drinks to meetings until literally this week. Get off of it. It's not a thing.
Could be different professions, different markets, different cultures. You also came to me.
Dress codes like that are racist. As a Native American I should be allowed to have my hair and clothing in a traditionally Cherokee style if I want to and if your clients have a problem with that then they are racist fucks who can go fuck themselves.
At the end of the day “the customer is always right” doesn’t mean I should be expected to sell my scruples for your ROI.
I wasn't talking about hair? I feel like we're starting to mix appearance requirements with non-appearance presentation.
And I don't care about hair other than it would be considered "neat" in the culture it came from. Given the multicultural mix of where I work, people wear a wide variety of different hair styles including afros, turbans, beards, and marks on their forehead. Even worked with a non-federally recognized Native American engineer who wore his hair long in a ponytail.
You just said that iced coffee was enough to let you know someone wasn’t serious about client expectations and that you still work at a place that requires a suit and tie on occasion. I’ve never worked somewhere that had a dress code, even one that didn’t apply all the time, that didn’t mention hair.
Regardless, I find it hard to square the idea that iced coffee wouldn’t fly but an Afro would. But maybe I just live around a lot of racist people.
I live in an area with a lot of various immigrant groups, so the hair requirement gets limited to neat and tidy without specifying length. There is also a lot more leeway if you aren't seeing a client or you're out in the field.
It sounds like you live around a lot of racist people, but also an unresponsive legal system. The number of successful lawsuits in my state regarding discrimination have generally beat out any desire to measure hair in the industry I work in.