AIBU to think takeaway iced coffee at interviews is unprofessional?

Yes I think it's still unprofessional to take own drinks into an interview. Leave it outside the interview room If you must have a drink before hand.

If offered a drink by the interviewer , just choose from what's being offered. Accepting a glass of water is usually the best option.

Semi Retired, glad not to have to worry about modern office etiquette!

Well an interview is not a coffee break so yes agree with pp it shows a lack of judgement.

Me neither.

I know!
but I’m telling you now I wouldn’t be calling them in if that’s what they’re like. First impressions are everything.

That's unbelievable, isn't it!

They wouldn’t be being called in if that was me interviewing! How rude!

Having watched this explode on X over the last few days, it seems very much to be a metaphor for (klaxon - huge sweeping generational generalisation) for Gen Z X posters who don't seem to understand the purpose of job interviews is to interview the ppl you've shortlisted because they akready have the skills fur the job so you're competing with (depending on the job) from anything up to 10-20 ppl and millennial/gen X p who do the interviewing explaining how they coukd probably give the job to anyone of a number of ppl because they all have the same skill set and so it comes down to how they are perceived as potential co workers/team players/possessors of soft skills that enable you to get along with ppl

this concept appears to have both baffled & enraged the Gen Z posters who think having the skills to go the job should just be enough & requiring anything else is unreasonable

it's been must entertaining and enlightening and it's really not about coffee....

I don’t work in this area, but if someone said ‘support worker’ to me I would think of exactly what google tells me it is, which is also what others have said in this thread.

Back to the question, yes I think bringing in a drink like that is bad etiquette. I’m not sure it counts as unprofessional, because you could do the same in a meeting and that would be fine, but it just doesn’t sit right in an interview. It seems casual, and like you just dropped in to be interviewed as one of your errands in town that day. It doesn’t look great the other side of the table either, although more freedom on that side. I would say all drinking the water provided, or coffee provided, is more egalitarian and removes the ‘well I’ve looked after myself’ element from the room.

I see it as unprofessional.

If you can't manage one interview without an adult version of a sippy cup to hand, how are you ever going to stop slurping long enough to do any work?

Same with the people who can't leave the house without a water bottle the size of a backpack.

If it was in the middle of a heatwave I'd understand, but otherwise I'd just think you were not interested in the job.

Job interviews are like dates at the beginning of a relationship.
You are basically showing the best side of yourself and it is likely to be all downhill from there.

You don't think sucking up a drink through a straw with the ice rattling is unprofessional? A functioning adult should be able to time and space food and drink intake. Have a decent breakfast at home.
Bring a bottle of water. Sip it unobtrusively.
It's not a friendly chat, it's a rigorous system to judge potential employees.

Perhaps you're blessed with a very efficient digestive system!

My pleasure.

Thanks for that.

Could you explain why taking your own drink to an interview is ridiculous/unprofessional.

I’m glad you’ve said this. I was beginning to wonder if I’d hallucinated the concept of burping

No. Professionalism is the ability to perform a job to the standards expected, in exchange for pay, demonstrating the required skill and expertise to perform it to accepted quality standards. Ie, not amateur.
In a job interview drinking an iced coffee is irrelevant to that. With the possible exceptions of interviewing for a niche role representing the Anti Ice Coffee lobby.
Observing etiquette can form part of professionalism, but typically reserved for universally agreed social norms, like not attending dressed as Coco the clown, or telling the interviewer they remind you of a toad, or similar. Even if they do.

Water is fine and usually offered, anything else is unprofessional.

Nobody thinks bottled water is unreasonable.

I’m now concerned about the people who are saying bringing anything is unprofessional! I’ve always taken a bottle of water in with me as my throat dries up when I get nervous (I am pretty terrible at interviews tbh)

I was thinking maybe it’s the clinky ice and the wet ring on the desk

Looking forward to the MN thread on this 😂

That’s the thing, I’m not sure why I think it’s unprofessional. I don’t think it’s the can of pop per se as a can of Diet Coke wouldn’t bother me. I think it’s just Tango. Maybe because of the adverts in the 90s?

MN isn't a hive mind. You're posting on here and you disagree? MN doesn't "think" anything.

I think they are somehow worse because they sweat

Ditto. Since joining mumsnet it has become abundantly clear that my idea of what being a 'professional' entails is wildly out of whack with the majority, despite me being (on paper at least) the archetypal professional myself. If an interviewee plonked a bottle in Famous Grouse on the table then yeah, I'd mark them down for it (single malts are far superior), but a drink that you'd not bat an eyelid at in an office normally? Couldn't care less, absolutely irrelevant. In fact, if I was interviewing a parade of the type of bland, personality-and-warmth-free automatons that MN seems to think exemplify 'professionalism', bringing a slightly unusual drink in may serve to make them a bit more memorable, in a good way.