A Peak into the Life of Working at Starbucks..

The speaker, Will Johnson, shares his experience working at Starbucks. He initially applied because his brother had a positive experience working there. Despite being nervous on his first day, he grew to love his job, especially making drinks and getting to know customers. He became a Coffeemaster and competed in the barista championships, earning third place. He was later promoted to shift supervisor. He enjoys the benefits and opportunities Starbucks provides, including free coffee, insurance, pay raises, and the chance to join the global coffee team. He plans to pursue a career with Starbucks and merge it with his major in global studies. He also mentions that Starbucks pays for his schooling. Overall, he highly recommends working at Starbucks for both a first job and a long-term career. Hello, everybody, and welcome to today's episode of the Small But Mighty podcast. Today's episode is titled, A Peek into the Life of Working at Starbucks, and sponsored by my Intro to Digital Culture class. All right, y'all, my name is Will Johnson, and I have been an employee at Starbucks for almost three years now. And today, I just want to share a little bit about what it's like to work at Starbucks and what my experience has been so far working with the company. And I think it's really great, so I'd love to share with y'all. So the start of my Starbucks experience was a little bit interesting. This was my very first job, and my brother had worked for Starbucks already. So he had already experienced how great of a company it is, and he just wanted to encourage me to get that as my first job. So I applied, and fortunately, I got it because my brother had worked there, so that was a good resource to have. And so I was... Let me just tell you. I was absolutely terrified to start because this was just my first job, and there was just a lot of pressure, and everyone knew who my brother was, so it was just a little bit nerve-wracking. But I started off, and funny story, actually, when I... My very first day of training, I went in, and I was just so anxious and nervous that I actually threw up on the first day, so I had to go home. And that's just always a funny story I like to tell, just because it's a little bit embarrassing, especially if you can see where I am now with my journey with Starbucks. So yeah, I started, and I began to really love it and really enjoyed making drinks and meeting customers and remembering their orders and stuff like that. So yeah, I just kept going with that, and then eventually, I just kept getting more and more passionate about it, more and more passionate about wanting to learn more about coffee and learn more about just Starbucks in general. So about, let's see, two years into working at Starbucks, maybe a year and a half, I began an interest with the Coffeemaster program, and if you don't know what that is, it's... If you ever went to a Starbucks, and you walk in, and you see a barista with a black apron on, that's because that barista has completed their Coffeemaster certification, and it's essentially just like a special training, or now it's called the Coffee Academy, so it's like a class that you take, and it kind of just gives you education on both coffee and Starbucks, the interworking of Starbucks, the business side of it, and the production of Starbucks coffee just in general, right? So I became interested in that, and I decided to do it, and I was super nervous, again, this is a recurring theme, because you have to take these classes, and then at the end, your manager has to do a coffee tasting with you. So I had to prepare a coffee whatever way I wanted to, and I had to pair it with one of our pastries that we had, or just any pastry you wanted to, so I did it, and I was super nervous, but I ended up getting it, so I received the certification to be a Coffeemaster, which is really great, and fortunately for me, after that, that same manager actually asked me to participate in the barista championships of our district, and this is just like a fun little thing that Starbucks does within their districts, my district was like 16 stores, and it's just like someone represented it for me at the store to compete in this Coffeemaster, you know, coffee, or barista championships is what it's called, right? And so that was really cool, I ended up getting third place on that, and that was a really cool accomplishment for me, especially because I was definitely the youngest one there. So yeah, so then shortly after that, I know, just so many accomplishments, right? Shortly after that, I was asked by that same manager to be promoted to be a SHIP supervisor, which is essentially just, you know, the manager on duty on the floor. So I was super nervous about that as well, because I was just 18, and just, you know, was just a little bit nervous to be managing a whole store at a time, but I accepted it, and ever since then, I've been a SHIP supervisor for, now, currently, I've been a SHIP supervisor for about a year. So that journey has been super cool, just to experience what it's like to be a manager, and what it's like to have, you know, responsibility with dealing with cash and stuff like that. All this stuff that, you know, maybe makes other people nervous, it's really exciting to me. So I've really enjoyed that experience so far, and not only just because, like, it's fun to be a manager and stuff like that, but also just because of how Starbucks, you know, treats their employees. There's so many benefits that are there for us. We have discounts on drinks, discounts on, we actually get a free, like, one pound of coffee every single week, which is really great, and of course, there's insurance benefits as well, and pay raises, and all that kind of good stuff. So it's just a really, really great company to work for in general, and that's what I've kind of experienced with, you know, coming from, you know, going in as my first job as a barista, and now being a SHIP supervisor, I've just been able to experience how great of a company it is. And because of that, I kind of want to pursue a career with Starbucks, and because my major is global studies right now in college, I kind of want to merge that with my career with Starbucks, and they have a global coffee team, which essentially just is a team of people that, you know, they go around internationally, and they go to these pharma support centers that Starbucks offers. And these are really great, because these pharma support centers allow farmers to have a place to go in other countries that Starbucks, you know, supplies to, and just Starbucks's way of giving back to the farmers that are, you know, essentially harvesting our beans for us, for the company. And so I think that's a really cool thing that Starbucks does to, you know, give back to the people that are putting in the most work for us, you know. So this team, the global coffee team, they go around, and they, you know, help with the pharma support centers. They're mostly agronomists, which are just people that are in charge of, you know, have a knowledge of plants and how things grow, different soils, different, you know, what's the right soil to use to make this specific type of roast, right? So that's just something I'm super, super interested in as well. And they also just come up with new coffees and all kinds of cool stuff like that. So now, not only has Starbucks given me a current career with as a, being a shift supervisor, but also it's something that I want to just continue going and going with because it's just such a great company to be a part of. So if anybody is looking for their very first job or looking for anything to have a further career with, I think that Starbucks is just such a great option to do so. And on top of all of that, Starbucks is actually paying for my school. So I go to school for free through ASU online because of Starbucks. So there's just so many, so many amazing benefits and advantages to being a Starbucks employee. So there's just a little bit about what it's like to work at Starbucks and a little bit about my experience with it. And yeah, I hope you guys enjoy it and I hope you guys, we'll see you guys next time, okay? Bye bye!