Table of contents
- Job Overview
- Requirements
- Career Outlook
- Conclusion
This essay is about an interesting career—barista. Some basic information about a barista such as jobs and duties, working places, working hours as well as salary will be included in the report. Besides that, I will write about how to be a barista and the outlook of this career dependent on my research.
Job Overview
Since coffee is a popular drink and there are more and more coffee shops around the world, people are familiar with barista. In simple terms, a barista is a person who makes coffee and other caffeinated drinks and serves them to customers (Goodwin, 2017). Also, a barista needs to take customers’ order, grind coffee beans, make menu and create new drinks. Generally, baristas work in coffee shops or coffee bars with commercial espresso machines. On average, a full-time barista works 35-40 hours a week (‘Job description wiki’, n.d.). Many baristas need to work at nights, on weekends or holidays because they work shifts. In the United States, the average salary of barista is 10.24 dollars per hour (‘Indeed’, 2018).
Requirements
To be a barista is not as easy as people imagine. As mentioned above, baristas mainly work with commercial espresso machines. Goodwin (2017) explains that the machines are difficult to handle, some are manual and requiring enormous skill, training, and ability to adapt to the subtle difference of every batch of coffee, the day's weather as well as the customer's preferences. Therefore, this requires a barista to know different kinds of coffee beans and drinks well. In addition, a good barista should enjoy coffee and have a good palate because he or she needs to taste the coffee and adjust recipes as required (Brones, 2015). What’s more, an excellent barista should be able to focus on preparing drinks in a stressful and fast-paced environment and keep smiling all the time. Last, high levels of hand-eye coordination, a good sense of art and good communication skills are also needed to become a good barista.
In general, there are few formal requirements for baristas. They can learn their job skills by attending barista training courses, and they can also learn from other senior baristas (Goodwin, 2017). And some large-scale coffee shop such as Starbucks, will provide some training for their new employees.
Career Outlook
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (2016) predicted that the average employment rate for baristas in the US may rise ten percent until 2024. Barista become a more and more appreciated job for making delicious coffee which helps people improve their living qualities and there are an increasing number of coffee shops around the word. Therefore, the request for baristas may go up a lot not only in the US but also in the whole world.
Conclusion
Barista is an interesting but complex job. They don’t work too long every week but need to work at nights, on weekends or holidays. It is far more difficult than people imagine to be a good barista. It’s suitable for those who love coffee, have a good palate, are creative and imperturbable to become baristas. However, the barista job is described as complex, but it requires no qualifications. Anyone interested in this career can have a try.