Ask a Starbucks Barista anything

164 Questions

Last Answer on June 12, 2016

Can you go into detail about the training process that baristas go through. I'm looking into a job there but I'm a bit nervous on being trained.

Asked by Jes over 10 years ago

Every barista goes through the same training whether you have experience or not. You get trained on coffee, register and the bar. It takes about 2 weeks and you spend the bulk of the time with a shift manager.

683 Votes

What are the best kind of shoes to wear on the job?

Asked by lulz over 10 years ago

Comfortable, closed toed (and in the case of Starbucks, black or white) ones. I wore ones that had thick soles since I was standing on concrete most of the day, but any comfortable ones should be good.

677 Votes

So you wanna work in Food Services?

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Does Starbucks hire people over the age of 30?

Asked by carmoore11 over 10 years ago

Yes, I had several coworkers over the age of 50 and knew of many others at other locations.

674 Votes

How much money did starbucks pay to their employees in 2013?

Asked by sukhdev Singh Badayak about 10 years ago

I do not know.

At the time of my employment in 2011, I was making 15 cents over the federal minimum wage (so $7.40). That will change depending on experience, employement level (barista vs manager) and location.

668 Votes

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Do you think I could handle a part time Starbucks job while in high school?

Asked by HS over 10 years ago

I think that is entirely dependant on your ability to juggle work and school. Many people find they are able to do it. I managed to work full-time in a career job as well as 20 hours a week at Starbucks.

665 Votes

If I get called in for an interview, what should I expect? Questions they ask? How I should dress?

Asked by Emily almost 10 years ago

I dressed business casual (nice slacks and top) because I wanted to show my manager I took the interview seriously. She dropped other candidates who showed up in jeans and tshirts. Again, my manager was my manager and all managers are different.

I think it took about half an hour and she mostly asked me why I wanted to work for Starbucks, my experience and how I could apply it to the job, what I thought of their communtiy service policy (my manager really loved it) and then posed a lot of scenarios to see what I thought I'd do. For instance, she'd ask, "There are two of you working. You're on register and the drip coffee needs to be changed out, tea needs to be made, there are dishes piling in the back, you are running out of cups and you have a line out the door. What do you do first? Why? What do you do next? Why? Say the third customer in line starts yelling because you're taking too long, how do you respond? Why?"

I don't know if there are right or wrong answers to this, but since I'd already worked in a coffee shop I had an idea of what order things need to be addressed in. Part of me thinks it's just a baseline to see if you can grasp the idea that while customers are really important to Starbucks, so is quality and you can't sacrifice one for the other.

664 Votes