[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee] Global language-learning platform Duolingo is reported to have used how applicants treated taxi drivers as an actual evaluation criterion during past hiring processes.

A Conversation report cited by online outlet Gigazine on May 10 said Duolingo Chief Executive Luis von Ahn (루이스 폰 안) told a podcast he once assessed an applicant’s character this way while looking for a chief financial officer candidate.

At the time, one applicant had an outstanding career and left a good impression in interviews. But the candidate was reported to have behaved very rudely toward the driver in a taxi Duolingo arranged from the airport to the office. The company was paying the driver separately to help evaluate the candidate, and that was shared with the executives who conducted the interviews.

Von Ahn said, "If they are harsh to the driver, they are probably the same to other people, especially their subordinates." He judged that behavior shown in everyday situations better indicates organisational fit than surface-level interview responses.

The case also shows Duolingo is not the only company that looks beyond resumes and interviews in hiring. Trent Innes (트렌트 이네스), chief growth officer at accounting software firm Xero, said he uses the so-called "coffee cup test." He has applicants taken to the kitchen before interviews, hands them a drink, and then watches whether they take the empty cup back to the kitchen themselves.

Innes said he does not hire applicants who leave dirty cups behind. He said, "Skills can be developed and knowledge and experience can grow, but what matters in the end is attitude," adding, "That attitude shows up in whether you clear your own coffee cup."

There was also a point that strategies applicants use in interviews to try to leave a certain impression do not, in practice, deliver much effect. Janina Steinmetz (야니나 슈타인메츠), a marketing professor at the University of London, noted that flattery or humblebragging to create a good impression in interviews is not always effective. If an applicant focuses only on self-promotion and drives the conversation one-sidedly, she said it is clear they could be rejected even without a separate taxi test.

She also saw that talking about one's efforts in an interview can instead create more closeness and authenticity. Empathy can increase, she said, when applicants explain the effort put into the process rather than the success itself.

The case again shows that hiring assessments do not take place only inside the interview room. It confirmed that, especially for executive-level hiring where corporate culture and leadership matter, attitudes toward outsiders, small behavioral habits and conversation style can be reflected in actual selection decisions.