AIBU to think takeaway iced coffee at interviews is unprofessional?

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

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.

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

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

Thanks for that.

My pleasure.

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

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.

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.

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.

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....

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

That's unbelievable, isn't it!

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.

Me neither.

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

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!

Would that be an option to do? In the public sector we have to be very strict on following HR guidelines around employment law and fair process. If someone has had a formal offer of an interview but I sent them away because they were doing something that’s not illegal, harmful or abusive in the waiting area or brought in a drink I’m not sure what grounds I’d have to turn them away.

That's true. It wouldn't create a good impression, though.

You have added the sucking and rattling parts. Sucking and rattling noises in an interview would be a potential distraction.

Yes, they would. Plus as pp have said - the person hasn't been invited for a coffee break, they've been invited for interview.

How a person goes into someone else's environment can tell you a lot about them. Bringing an iced coffee to an interview suggests that the person prioritises their own needs/wishes over any norms, needs or etiquette of the organisation. It points towards narcissistic traits and so it would put me off. I would much prefer a candidate who showed respect and a willingness to follow the organisational norms - someone who would not presume that it is ok to take their own drink into an interview.

Darlings, in the 'creative industries' one doesn't have to come across poors or empathy so why would one have ever heard of 'support workers' for such persons?

The follow up comments from the original poster on X showed why no one would probably want to employ them.......it was insightful to say the least!

So that's why people are walking around the streets and the supermarkets drinking coffee. Okay, got it now.