AIBU to think takeaway iced coffee at interviews is unprofessional?

This really made me
laugh. The pure madness of schools as employers and coffee isn’t good enough for you? 😂

i have had candidates turn up for a big 4 interview in jeans. I was not impressed. Find this worse than the iced coffee.

No. It's health and safety. None of those takeaway cups are allowed in corridors or classrooms. We have 1,750 teenagers, many of whom are on the corridors at the same time.
Many spillages, many falls in classrooms and corridors have led to this rule.
If you find it funny, that's your prerogative.

As much as I say I wouldn’t mind, they would need to find a way to still shake hands etc so if both hands were full as a result and they couldn’t juggle it , then it wouldn’t be a great first impression. Although if rest of the interview was good wouldn’t stop me from hiring

Why though? Why does it matter?!

My boss was the Group Finance and Commercial Director, there to handle the business/financial side of the pitch to the directors of the companies we were aiming to sell to. The graduates were the technical side of the project, there to explain how the systems integrated with their existing programs. If that's ok with you?

Meanwhile, your rebuttal was ALL feelings, lol. Not a single logical reason as to why they were wrong.
Also, it's an interview - you're being assessed on even the smalls things about yourself.

i think it’s really interesting that these young people were skilled enough to explain the technology though. Couldn’t you find more mature people who could do so or didn’t they have the right skilll set?

because I mean, it’s your company that choose to put a load of inexperienced grads in an important meeting, cereal or no cereal. Seems quite poorly thought out.

YANBU it seems quite it doesn't seem very professional to bring a coffee.

Well, it matters no more than what you're wearing in terms of your ability to do the job, in the vast majority of cases, and yet few people would turn up to an interview in a vest and shorts. First impressions matter, and when you're there to persuade a company that you are the right person out of the multitude of other candidates they are going to interview that week, why would you do anything that might risk the impression you give if you didn't need to? Nobody needs an ice coffee in an interview. Have one before or after. For a lot of people, it comes across as casual, or even disorganised (in that you didn't give yourself time to have your drink beforehand), and you will have no idea whether your interviewer falls in to the category of people who think that. It just seems odd to me to do something you don't need to do on the principle that it 'doesn't matter' when in fact it might.

Definitely not professional. Accept a glass of water offered and nothing else imo! We once interviewed a graduate man who had his short sleeves rolled up, leaned back in his chair and swigged constantly from a plastic water bottle - awful! I’m late 40s and worked in publishing for most of my career till recently.

Why are you pretending not to know what the job title "support worker" is?

Who said it was? It's subservient to only drink liquids approved by the interviewer.

had you offered him water in a glass/have it available for him?

It was not 'my company '. I was a employed as a PA. I had no part in the business planning. All I can say is that the technical employees were recruited from all over the UK and beyond and believed to be the best in their field. The company was very successful.

What all this has to do with the topic of this thread I don't know. Clever young people ought to realise without having to be told that it is not professional to take part in important meetings whilst spooning cereals into your mouth.

Very poor social skills.

Apparently so! OP taking this VERY seriously 😄

Hope you stretched before that leap.

Grads can have very good knowledge, insight in to the details and it can also be a great learning opportunity for them.

Not if they haven’t learnt appropriate workplace behavior and are thrown in front of a board it’s not

No, why do people feel the need to constantly be carrying a drink? Unprofessional. Look up Hugh Grants views on this it’s spot on and funny

I’m 53, healthcare admin

Yes. I interviewed someone who walked into our (small) office for interview holding a takeaway coffee. Because of this it was an immediate 'no' but I went through the motions (at speed).

Corporate law. I definitely wouldn't do it

its so bizzare I can go to the coffee shop on the way to an interview and buy a drink I prefer over a drink offered in an interview. Same as if I got the job in an office I’d stop and get a coffee of my own choice on the way in rather than the standard coffees that are potentially provided. I don’t even bloody like coffee but how you’re slating people for having a drink on the way to and in an interview is so so strange. I prefer hot chocolate and often have flavourings I also prefer Starbucks to anywhere else but according to you anyone in a working day should just stick to bog standard coffee that’s offered at work instead of going to spend their money where they choose to.

I still stand by it though I only turn up to an interview with water if anything at all and in my last interview 3 years ago I turned up with nothing but myself and my documents