I’m pretty sure the job title “barista” is just a marketing tactic. Working for Starbucks is equivalent to working for dunkin and no one would call their employees baristas or their store a coffee shop.

The drinks at Starbucks have almost no semblance to real life coffee. You go into a coffee shop in italy and ask for a caramel macchiato and they’ll laugh you right out.

Misto is a made up name for cafe au lait
Frappuccino’s are nowhere NEAR what a frappe from Greece actually is

The espresso is cheap and bitter - the machines bake the hell out of it and there is no wiggle room for handcrafting.

You want to be a barista? Go to a local shop

I would learn at a local or smaller scale coffee shop! that’s what i did and thank god i knew what i was doing in training. otherwise i’d be way overwhelmed. they pay usually the same and it’s more relaxed!

It really depends. Do you want to make a career out of it? Are you willing to put in extra time on your own to learn more about coffee? Can you handle extremely high stress? Do you need benefits (health insurance, want to get a degree, 401k, ect)?

In my opinion, it can be a good stepping stop. Starbucks is by no means a “true/real” coffee shop. We are a fast food coffee business. A lot of our drinks aren’t standard in other countries (like Italy which has a HUGE coffee culture). It’s a high pace, high stress job. The majority of the work/craft of coffee making is done for you.

All that said, there are good thing about it. The pay sucks. But the benefits are outstanding. I mean an average of 20hrs a week for health insurance is unheard of, especially in a fast food or entry level job. You can make a career at Starbucks. There are so many opportunities for growth and promotion. With the flexibility of being able to move and still keep your job! You will learn very basic things about coffee in training. Like what an Americano is, how to do pour overs, ect. But! There are ways to learn more. The partner hub has insane amounts of information about coffee and tea. As does the coffee academy (which is now open to the public too btw).

Honestly, if you could I’d try to get hired at a Roastery or even a reserve store. They get the same benefits as regular stores but imo are much closer to a true coffee shop

I work at a Starbucks in a grocery store and I highly recommend working at a Starbucks kiosk in another store. It gets less busy, no ordering online or drive thru, a little more flexible just in general than normal locations. I like it better than say, cashier, because you get to keep busy and learn stuff which is more fun. Plus you get awesome regulars who come all the time.

Thank you everyone! I'll look into locals shops around my area instead.

in my opinion it’s definitely worth it, but not as a career. i’ve been with the company for about 2 years now and let me tell you, i’m a completely different person than i was when i first got hired. the job helped me develop my skill further and i am more outgoing and just won’t take crap from customers or even coworkers anymore (id get bullied and pushed around into doing things)

It's really not that bad. go for it!

No