Steve Jobs’ “Beer Test”: How He Chose the Right People for Apple

Before his passing in 2011, Steve Jobs was recognized not just for his obsession with design and innovation, but also for the way he built Apple’s teams. To him, finding the right people was just as important as creating groundbreaking products.

Jobs often skipped the traditional office interview. Instead, he preferred to take candidates for a walk and then sit down over a beer. The goal wasn’t to grill them with technical questions, but to see what they were like outside of work.

He would ask simple, open-ended questions—“What did you do last summer?” or “When was the last time you achieved something you’re proud of?” These conversations revealed character, curiosity, and drive far better than résumés ever could.

Building Teams of “A-Players”

• Jobs was convinced that great companies are built by what he called “A-players.” He believed top talent thrived when surrounded by equally strong peers—and that chemistry mattered as much as competence.

• The beer test helped him decide if a candidate was not only skilled but also someone he’d genuinely want to work with. In his view, culture and collaboration were inseparable from performance.

Jobs carried the same philosophy into his personal life. On his $120 million yacht Venus, he created a soundproofed private workspace at the back, separated from his children’s cabins at the front. This design let him focus deeply while staying close to family—a balance of work and environment that reflected his priorities.

A Consistent Vision

• From product design to hiring, Jobs relied on simplicity and intuition. The beer test was just another expression of that belief: the best ideas and the best teams come from human connection, not corporate formality.