Can you tell if I've tied one on?

July 24, 2011 3:11 PM

Can you tell if someone was drinking the night before you meet them? I have been reading several "get the job" books and many of them instruct not to drink the night before an interview. I agree that this is good advice for several reasons, but they also state that people can "tell" if you have been drinking.

Assuming we're not talking about being obviously hung over, can you tell if someone drank the night before? If so, how? If I drink enough to get tipsy, but not enough to be hung over, is there still a tip off? Would you have to have known me for a while to see a difference? Or would you know even if you had never met someone before?

A couple of the books mention alcohol coming out of your pores or that it makes you look different somehow. I haven't noticed this personally, but maybe I'm not aware of it?

Anon because I don't want my not-really-secret internet identity tied to a question about drinking and job searching.

posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (27 answers total)

No. Alcohol does not come out of your pores or make you look different.

If you've been drinking, you probably haven't had a good nights sleep and will look tired.
posted by geoff. at 3:15 PM on July 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

No, I can think of no possible way for anyone to tell you drank the night before. Even thinking you're hungover requires guesswork and assumptions. There's a reason high functioning alcoholics are called that.
posted by sweetkid at 3:16 PM on July 24, 2011

I can tell if my boyfriend had too much to drink the night before, but that's because I know really well what my boyfriend looks like normally. (Also, the infrequent drinking-too-much occurrences also correlate with staying up too late and being dehydrated, resulting in a slightly bedraggled appearance.) I don't think it would be even a little bit possible for someone to tell you had been drinking the night before, unless you walked in with a club stamp still on your hand.
posted by phunniemee at 3:21 PM on July 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't buy it. I've known true alcoholics who reeked of alcohol pretty much constantly, but they were also drinking pretty much constantly, so I'm not entirely sure where the smell came from.

Casual drinking? Not a chance. I wouldn't go out and get yourself wrecked the night before a job interview, but mostly because it'll just make you less sharp.
posted by Kadin2048 at 3:24 PM on July 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Getting slightly tipsy...there is no definite way they can tell.

However, you seem to be giving this issue an awful lot of psychological weighting.
If you are that concerned, it will probably play on your mind the morning of the interview so maybe just don't indulge at all.
posted by jacobean at 3:38 PM on July 24, 2011

I've never interviewed someone and thought to myself, "whoa—they were clearly wrecked last night." And given the number of interviews I've done, odds are at least one of them had been drinking the night prior.
posted by jeffamaphone at 3:38 PM on July 24, 2011

In no way do I think this universal, but I have had friends whose physical smell changes the day after a night of imbibing to the degree that I could reliably perceive it. I assume that this depends on an individual's personal metabolism. I have never been pregnant but am somewhat sensitive to physical scent. You may be fine but you may run into someone like me. FWIW, I've had my boss remark it to me about a delivery guy that I thought was borderline.
posted by Morrigan at 3:40 PM on July 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yeah smell. It's distinctive, if people are looking for it. Although there are a number of other things that smell like drinking. As the wife of a (former?) alcoholic, I can tell you that Red Bull & Monster smell an awful lot like the next-day beer breath/sweat combo.
posted by Ys at 3:46 PM on July 24, 2011 [3 favorites]

it really depends on the interviewer, how much you had to drink, and how your body processes alcohol.

some people have very sensitive noses and the excretion of alcohol is readily notable, even down to what specific libation was involved.

even reasonable imbibing can cause puffiness in the eyelids and face and/or redness, which is certainly visible (women can wear makeup to cover up some of this, though). eyes can also appear bloodshot and lips dehydrated.

drinking loads of water and eating sensibly (no high-sodium/fat foods with that alcohol) can minimise these signs (but might not).

personally, i wouldn't risk it. holding off the night before an interview is a good idea. makes the after-interview drink so much tastier.
posted by batmonkey at 3:49 PM on July 24, 2011

If you drink enough to ask the question, then I too would hold off for the night. You will find yourself much more alert and sharp, in good shape for an interview.
posted by megatherium at 4:01 PM on July 24, 2011 [4 favorites]

I can tell with people I know - it's different from when they're sick or just dehydrated (like, they look differently weird than the day after they get back from Coachella.) The stuff I can remember offhand has mostly to do with glassy eyes, puffy eyelids, visible blood vessels on the cheeks, etc. But I think there's more to it than that, because I'm really pretty good at it, considering how little my friends drink.

However, I suspect this falls more under the same category of advice as "eat sensibly several days before you take the SATs" - more about being generally alert, sober, in good spirits, stable, etc., than because there's a grand secret Thing that will magically Ruin Stuff if you break the rules given forth in said advice.
posted by SMPA at 4:11 PM on July 24, 2011

Depending on the job, the fact that you were drinking the night before might be seen as an asset. There are a lot of jobs where hard-drinking is part of the culture.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 4:25 PM on July 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

When some of my running buddies drink, their sweat smells distinctly of alcohol. Sometimes I can even tell what they drank. Other people can be complete boozebags and I don't catch a whiff of it. It seems to be distinct to the individual whether their sweat smell of alcohol.

However I've interviewed gobs of people, including a few with epic flop sweat, I've never gotten the stench of boozy perspiration during an interview. Honestly, I seriously doubt an interviewer is going to determine that you had a glass of wine or beer with dinner.
posted by 26.2 at 4:35 PM on July 24, 2011

SMELL.

ON YOUR BREATH.

YES. I CAN ALWAYS TELL.
posted by jbenben at 4:52 PM on July 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

Nthing those who can smell it. Always.
posted by chez shoes at 5:15 PM on July 24, 2011

No. Alcohol does not come out of your pores or make you look different.

Wrong, alcohol does come out of your pores. And it comes out in your breath. Any person who has done heavily drinking reaks of it the next day. Maybe I have an acute sense of smell, but I smell it everytime.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 5:16 PM on July 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

Eh, I've had a number of situations where I smelled something, asked the friend in question if they'd been drinking, and determined that they'd had vodka or scotch or a bunch of beers the night before. So, yeah, I can smell it.
posted by MeiraV at 5:21 PM on July 24, 2011

Almost-too-obvious-to-say-filter but what does "the night before" mean? And when in the following day is the interview?

If you're up drinking till midnight and the interview is at 9 AM, one answer, but if you stop drinking at 9 PM and your interview is at 4 PM, totally different answer.

If you normally have a drink or two at night, going without will probably affect your ability to sleep, or to get to sleep. It might actually be worse to go without and have a restless night.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 5:22 PM on July 24, 2011

I'm not a drinker, yet I've been asked a few times if I'd been out drinking the night before or earlier in the day (if the question was asked in the evening). So I'd say that people who say they can tell might not be so right about that.

(Incidentally the common thread seems to be a warm room and/or nerves and/or excitement making me flush more than someone would expect of an olive-complected person under the circumstances. I hope an interviewer never thought this!)
posted by tchemgrrl at 7:45 PM on July 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

If it makes you nervous to think about people assessing your alcohol intake through mysterious invisible means, sure, avoid. I'd take the importance of being able to "tell" with a grain of salt for a few different reasons though.

Primarily, I would be deeply puzzled by anyone felt that the wine I drink with dinner is remotely any of their business.

Secondly, those with highly-sensitive noses which can sniff out hours-old alcohol consumption must also be able to smell whether I'm on medication, take vitamins, have my period/am ovulating/have had sex recently, and the extent to which my diet includes dairy, fruit, cruciferous vegetables, etc. That's a lot of TMI to ignore.
posted by desuetude at 10:09 PM on July 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yep, heavy drinking the night before and you'll smell of it in the morning. Don't know if it happens to everyone, or how much you have to drink, but I have a terrible sense of smell and I've smelt it on people many times (but then I am a journalist so maybe the number of booze-sodden folk sliding regretfully into their desks near me of a morning is higher than average).
posted by penguin pie at 4:55 AM on July 25, 2011

And, I would add that, contrary to one of the comments above, even in industries where heavy drinking is par for the course, turning up for an interview reeking of booze would not be looked on favourably.
posted by penguin pie at 4:57 AM on July 25, 2011

Alcohol is metabolized into acetaldehyde, then acetic acid. All three of which have a smell. However, you'd probably have had to ingested a significant amount of alcohol for it to ooze out of you the next morning. The glass of wine with dinner? That's not a problem. The six pack before bed may well be.

Secondly, those with highly-sensitive noses which can sniff out hours-old alcohol consumption must also be able to smell whether I'm on medication, take vitamins, have my period/am ovulating/have had sex recently, and the extent to which my diet includes dairy, fruit, cruciferous vegetables, etc. That's a lot of TMI to ignore.

I can smell some of those things.
posted by gjc at 7:42 AM on July 25, 2011

Not to mention that it will make you most likely a little more sluggish when it comes to answering questions. This is the reason I wouldn't drink the night before.
posted by darkgroove at 7:49 AM on July 25, 2011

Super sensitive nose...

Secondly, those with highly-sensitive noses which can sniff out hours-old alcohol consumption must also be able to smell whether I'm on medication, take vitamins, have my period/am ovulating/have had sex recently, and the extent to which my diet includes dairy, fruit, cruciferous vegetables, etc. That's a lot of TMI to ignore.

Yes, it IS a lot. Also I smell what chemicals are in your hygiene products, what chemicals you've used for cleaning recently, and whether you know how to wipe thoroughly.

(I've been asked... if you can smell things so strongly, why do you smoke tobacco? Obviously not by other smokers.)
posted by _paegan_ at 8:58 AM on July 25, 2011

People who claim they can always tell may be forgetting that they only notice the ones they notice. The ones they don't notice don't get noticed.

Ever heard of confirmation bias?
posted by General Tonic at 9:54 AM on July 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Not just the smell. In my experience, some people's voice changes after a night of drinking - becoming lower and hoarser, especially if you smoke a few cigarettes with your alcohol. I can always recognize when one of my friends had been drinking, and if I happen to drink more than a couple of drinks, my voice is awful the next day.
posted by ye#ara at 2:28 PM on July 25, 2011