Roast #20: The Barista Series, Part 1

Date: Mar 22, 2023

Barista Rumors: Brian signs with WV Partners (idk... think NFL free agency)

If you enjoyed reading this, here's Part 2 and Part 3

Hello friends,

It's been a while — well, specifically close to two weeks.

Some of you know, and some don't, but I've since started a barista job at Partners Coffee in the West Village.

Partners Coffee WV Store Front

In early January, I got laid off from my software engineering job at Carta. It sucked, but I wasn't too sad as this wasn't my first layoff, and I was somewhat excited about what doors this layoff would lead to. The last layoff allowed me to transition from a product marketing role into a software engineering role, which led to a happier and more content me.

I was already planning on leaving Carta around June, and I was thinking about taking a few months off to work as a barista before returning to tech.

So yeah — my barista plans got pushed up a few months. 🥲

I started sending out resumes and applying. That process was a lot harder than I expected. I started my search by reviewing the postings on New York Coffee Jobs.

I exhausted that list after about an hour. Once I finished off that list, I stopped since all the other stuff on indeed/google jobs/ziprecruiter seemed super spammy or not interesting (ie, Barista at Macy's location).

From sending out the applications and working through the responses, I realized that getting a barista job would not be easy.

I wanted to be picky

I wanted to be selective in which cafe I worked at. I jumped into this career tangent mainly for learning purposes, so it was important to me that wherever I worked would be at a place I could build a good barista foundation at.

I also wanted to work at a cafe that focused on specialty coffee. Both preferences slimmed down the pickings as there are probably only a handful of third-wave chains able to offer comprehensive training.

I preferred not to work at a mom-and-pop shop since I knew those environments wouldn't be optimal for my first barista role. I wanted more hand-holding, and those shops couldn't give it as they needed someone already trained to run their shop.

Job Seasonality

One of the seasonality-related responses

The first large hurdle I encountered was that I was applying during a time when most shops didn't need additional help. It made sense that there was some seasonality to the job market and that cafes only needed a little help during the winter because people were less likely to venture out during the cold.

I directly messaged a couple of target cafes, and they all said to get back to them in a month when traffic was expected to pick up.

I had no service experience

My barista resume

My barista resume could've been a quarter of a page long. I added spacing and whatever I found relevant to try and get it to look longer. 🥲

During one of my interviews, they asked me to provide them with a time when I provided good customer service. The last time I did anything customer service oriented with an external customer was seven years ago.

So I shared a story about how my engineer teammates were my "customers," and I would provide "good customer service" by being patient and empathetic with my code reviews.

That definitely was the answer he was looking for. 🥲

But yeah — some of those interviews were pretty rough.

But it all came together in the end

The intro email

I started the process with Partners on January 18. I interviewed shortly afterward, and then close to a month went by with no response, and I kinda assumed I didn't get the job. I was a bit bummed out.

The follow-up email

In early February, I got a follow-up e-mail asking if I was still interested in working with them. I absolutely was, so I responded, leading to additional interviews with the store manager at the time. I went into the West Village location, and it was such an extraordinary experience seeing the inner parts of a cafe — there was an entire downstairs section!

The offer email

And a few days later, I got a formal offer. 🥲

The journey since:

I'm starting my fourth week and pulled my first espresso shots on the bar yesterday.

I plan to write about my n00b perspective on being a barista, and I'll share those in different future posts.

Thanks for reading!

Thank you's:

• The entire team over at WV Partners. I feel I've bugged almost everyone with my questions, and everyone has been patient and understanding.
• Flavio, for the continued support. It was cool briefly catching up before you jetted off to Brazil (Have a good trip!)
• Gian at "A Passage Forms" for being open to working together on a collaboration. 👀
• Brent at @purehappinesscoffee for always taking amazing photos of @thoughtfulcoffee, and including us in his fun projects.
• The few customers who have bought something from my Shopify store. It means a lot, and the support keeps me going!