How to Be a Barista and Conquer the World
I know you are ambitious. I believe you can achieve anything you want. I’m sure you are tenacious enough to rise to the top. However, to succeed and thrive at your job, you need to start somewhere. One of the best ideas to start climbing your career ladder is embarking on the amazing world of coffee. There are several ways to do this. One of the easiest ways is to train as a barista and get a barista job.
Why Be a Barista?
You might be attending college, or you may have graduated a while ago. Ask yourself one question: After graduating from school, do you feel fully prepared for REAL life? While some might answer, yes. That’s great!
Unfortunately, too many others may think something like this: “Well, I learned a lot, and I read a lot, but I can’t apply this knowledge to my everyday life. I can’t even find a job with it!”
Your college and university education is important. If you can, you should definitely pursue your diploma or degree. However, you should be ready for the challenges of life and the labor market. There is no right way to do this.
We feel, however, that a great way to get ready is by landing a part-time job. This could also mean volunteering, traveling, fundraising or charity work, etc. – anything that involves a lot of communication and involvement with people and good organizations.
You might need to make extra money to do this. If so, a barista job is an excellent way to do this.
A barista job is probably one of the most versatile jobs you can find today. If you know how to sling espresso, you can do it anywhere.
Additionally, the skills you learn can help prepare you for a life that is constantly in flux. Along with other benefits of being a barista like drinking free coffee, having a flexible schedule, secure job skills, and a pretty good barista salary, it teaches you more subtle skills you don’t think of when looking for a barista job.
Among these skills are social skills, mentorship skills, math skills, time management skills, to mention a few. I hope this article will help you to look at a barista job from a different angle.
Benefits of Being a Barista: Work Anywhere
A barista job allows you to work anywhere in the world! If you think you’d like to be a barista and decide to pursue your career in coffee, there are plenty of things you can do.
Most baristas who are serious about their job become coffee professionals and participate in barista championships, latte art championships, cup tasters championships, brewers cup championships, etc. and make money out of training other baristas.
Many baristas eventually become coffee roasters, coffee educators, coffee shop owners, or coffee stand proprietors… After a few years in the industry, many baristas may feel like they have grown out of their shoes and are ready to take more responsibility and start their own venture.
Another way to grow within the coffee industry is through becoming a coffee roaster and opening your own roastery to sell coffee for other coffee shops. If you know how to do it right, a coffee roasting business can be very profitable. Espresso machines and other equipment maintenance is something that will always be in demand too. Green coffee buyers and exporters are other vital chains in the coffee industry open for experienced baristas.
But the best thing about it all is that you can be a barista and work in coffee literally anywhere in the world! Have you always wanted to go and live abroad? If so, you should be very confident that you can get a barista job. Having essential barista and coffee skills can easily open plenty of job opportunities everywhere in coffee. If you started a coffee shop once (for example, in the U.S., where it’s quite challenging to meet all the necessary legal, health, and building requirements), you would definitely be able to start your business in a different country or state too.
A barista job prepares you for the future in different industries.
What if you don’t see your long-term future in coffee? Does it make sense to get a barista job?
The answer is: Yes, of course!
Most companies have one important thing in common: they look for successful employees with a positive outlook on life. If you click on any job advertisement on LinkedIn, all employers will look for a good employee's same qualities no matter what industry it is. Employers are drawn to employees who are disciplined, enthusiastic, reliable, and detail-oriented. He or she is a good communicator and team player, not afraid to take responsibility and lead others. All these qualities can be developed at a barista job and used later to win in life. Let’s review some of them in this article.
Punctuality
Your coffee shop depends on you as a barista. Your customers expect your coffee stand to open at 7 am sharp or even earlier. If you work at an all-night business, your colleagues are waiting for you to relieve them for a night shift. You can’t be late. You need to show up on time, and to do it, you need to learn how to plan and manage your time.
Learning to do things on time and meet deadlines is a precious skill needed at every job. It starts with your ability to set and fulfill your inner deadlines and get a strong sense of time developed at a barista job.
Attention to details
As a barista, you will need to keep your eye on several small details simultaneously: grind size and weight, espresso beading, extraction time, milk steaming, customer’s needs and mood, other baristas around you, cleanliness of your barista workstation… Yes, all of this at the same time! Focusing on the basic details while having a big picture in mind is an important skill needed everywhere.
Sense of customer service
A barista can serve hundreds of customers a day. By observing the customers, you learn about their needs, their reactions, and their personalities. You also learn how to interact with different clients and make them happy by preparing their favorite coffee drinks and offering food items.
This is a useful skill for any marketing or customer service job: you know what customers like and how to attract their attention and money.
Social and communication skills
A barista is a social job. Besides making coffee, you will be expected to have small talk with your customers who come from all walks of life and tell you many interesting stories. This is a great chance to learn about the world and various topics behind the coffee bar. Your barista job teaches you to keep up with the news, follow current trends, and talk about practically anything with anyone you meet. While the job may not change your personality, your ability to talk to people can be developed. This increases your chances of successful employment in many other jobs.
Accounting skills
When being a barista, you deal with money, inventory, sometimes even salary and taxes. Your primary duty is to operate a coffee shop POS system, accept payments in cash and by card, and perform closing duties like counting a coffee shop's daily balance. Knowing how to handle and budget your money is a basic skill you need in your daily life to maintain your financial wellbeing. If later you pursue a career in finance or retail business, this skill will be invaluable.
Teamwork skills
Working in a team is a key skill for a successful barista career. You always work with several other baristas, so you need to maintain friendly relationships with them. Trust is central because you all need to be on the same page about coffee making and espresso machine cleaning duties. In a coffee shop, you share responsibility, and you work for the common goal, so communication inside a group is vital. Gossiping behind their backs is something that can ruin a professional relationship. As a good team player, you need to resolve any conflict arising in your group, manage your emotions, and find a consensus that suits every member.
Teamwork ethics and trust are among the most desired traits by any employer.
Managerial work
At your barista job, you will often be asked to mentor young baristas and even teach them basic barista skills. This activity requires patience, clear communication, and support. Many baristas are often promoted to managing positions, so your job will be to lead a team of fellow baristas, inspire them, manage their schedule, and solve the issues within a team or with clients.
To be a good leader, you need to be a good listener while being impersonal in your decision-making. It might sound like a difficult task, but once you learn to lead a team of baristas, you can lead practically any other team.
Working under pressure
One of the first skills that a barista develops is to work under pressure. You might have long shifts with a rush-hour crowd to serve; you will need to keep an eye on all coffee variables while giving orders to other baristas and communicating with your customers while thinking about how much milk and coffee you need to order. If you can handle the pressure of working in a coffee shop and stay enthusiastic, you are ready for the big game.
Passion
Your passion is central to your success at any job. Passion drives you to learn and improve your skills continuously. If you have passion but don’t have any skills, you will find the strength to learn and become a professional barista or anyone you choose to be. Coffee shop owners and managers look for people with passion in their eyes and a desire to learn new things. If you are not afraid of challenges, go for it!
Let Barista Training Academy Help You
Barista Training Academy has been helping new and aspiring baristas for the last six years. We are the premier online resource for learning about the topics important for new coffee service professionals. For more information, visit and read our barista blog and get our Beginning Barista Guide.
Brought to you by Barista Training Academy, “The Beginning Barista,” Your Ultimate Prep Guide to Getting Your First Job as a Barista” is an ultimate resource that is available online. It is affordable for anybody who is looking to start a career in the coffee industry. For more information, visit our blog.
