Striving a Career in Coffee Industry

Striving for a job in coffee can be quite challenging for you who has no background in coffee at the very beginning. But for sure you can start somewhere just to be in the coffee industry, from being waiter/waitress to becoming a junior barista until someday you find your way to become head barista or even store manager.

For me personally, a career in coffee is not always about climbing the ladder but also it is about swinging into different roles and acquiring new skill sets. Since in the coffee industry we have various positions that are available lately with not necessarily having a heavy coffee background. Currently the younger generation wants to work in coffee because of the art, science and vibrancy that coffee industry has to offer, but most of the older generation that have already been in coffee for quite some time will prefer more stability in their career.

From my personal experiences, I was starting as a waiter in a cafe that was barely serving specialty coffee in 2011, then slowly moving toward specialty coffee and making my way to be a sales person, trainer, coffee roaster and somehow business owner as well. This journey started ten years ago when I was in university and struggling with my introvertness and adding some pocket money, and it helps me till these days to overcome my own self doubt and low self esteem.

Swinging career in coffee can be great or worst depending on your long term goals, if your main goal is to make a lot of money, coffee is not the good place, but if your main goal to work in coffee is to develop yourself and acquiring new skills, I will recommend you to think about every two or three or five years plan.

I never thought of being a barista at the early stage of my career and ended up working as a barista on and off for almost four years, then I switched my vision to be a roaster in order to accomplish my long term goals. For sure starting a new role is not always easy or even that hard if you know your core values and capabilities. What does core value mean? It is about knowing your strengths and weaknesses in your current role that help you overcome new opportunities or challenges.

Next step is a long game of interviews and waiting. Every interview session that I passed or being rejected does not stop me from growing or even trying. My biggest tip for you is not to always think about what you want to do in order to win the interview, but think about something that you can add or contribute to their company so that the company has a better understanding on hiring you and what will be your impact to the business that they already establish. Knowing your worth and being realistic are the key success in a specialty coffee career. Being an apprentice or taking a course also will be a good help for you to achieve your goals. Lastly, do not be shy or afraid to ask for help, because the coffee industry is a small community, and most of everyone in coffee is well connected.

Me competing at Regional Barista Championship 2018 in Jakarta.

That moment was to closed my barista career for once in a life time, but definitely wanted to compete one more time someday.