Who works as a barista at Starbucks?

How to begin as a Starbucks Barista?

• Hello Everyone! I am a 16 year old boy with a question about how to become an effective Starbucks barista. I've applied for the barista job online, and competed the application, but I wanted to stop by my local Starbucks to talk to the manager and bring in a printed copy of the application to show "determination". This would be my first job, and I've heard that working at Starbucks has many benefits, and on top of that, I love coffee. I am a very outgoing guy, and I'm one of the top students in my class at school, so I figured I might as well give it a shot! I'm just worried about what to say/ask when i talk to the manager... I've also heard that the Starbucks environment is fast paced, but I'm willing to work through it! Is there anything about coffee i should know before applying, what specifically do I need to be able to do before taking the whole Starbucks training course? Anyways, If you have any help you could give me it would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

• Answer:

  When Starbucks looks at a person as a prospective barista, they want two different things, two different sets of skills. One is the ability to learn to make their drinks, to remember the recipes, to take the amount of care necessary to make a good drink, consistent with the customer's expectations. The other is they want a people person, someone who can interface with the public. The second skill set is rarer than the first. Just about anyone could learn to make frappucinos, but not everyone can stand behind a counter for 8 hrs of hectic fast-paced work and continue to smile at customers, listen to them, get their orders right, continue to care about their satisfaction. You have probably experienced this yourself with people behind a counter. Some don't know how to work the cash register, but they are pretty rare. More likely they are bad at their job because they don't care about making the customer happy. They're just waiting for their shift to be up. So, sorry for the long rant, but the bottom line is: If you want to impress the manger of the local Starbucks you want to come off as a people person. Someone who is not afraid of hard work, who just wants to please. That means you treat the manager in the interview the same way you'd treat a customer. You smile a lot. You listen carefully and look him/her in the eyes when they're talking to you. You get what they say the first time (because you were listening carefully). You treat the boss like a customer because you treat the customer like The Boss. You pretend you're really enjoying the interview. In fact, it's not a bad idea to thank him at the end for his time and tell him you enjoyed the interview! If they are happy with your attitude and your listening abilities, they can teach you the other stuff pretty easily. In fact I've had many jobs, and I've learned that no matter how much you know about a job, when you start a new job you're starting at the bottom. You are hired not for what you have learned already, but for how easy it is for you to learn, how easy they can teach you.