How Much Do Baristas Earn? Is Working at Starbucks a Promising Career? The Current State and Future Prospects of Baristas

Should You Become a Barista?

This is a question many coffee enthusiasts have wrestled with. In an era when coffee is everywhere, the barista profession has slipped into being described in conversation as "just a job to get by." But beyond making coffee, do baristas really have no room to grow?

Why Do You Want to Be a Barista?

Start with a question: why do you want to be a barista? (Take three seconds to think.) "Because I love coffee." "Because I love drinking coffee." "Because I love making coffee." "Because being a barista gives me a sense of accomplishment." "Because baristas seem artistic—it's the life I envision." "Because the work looks easy and comfortable."

(Please remove the monitor in my mind.) No need—most people now working as baristas thought exactly this before entering the profession. And then they discovered the job wasn't as wonderful as imagined: beyond knowing how to brew and understanding coffee, you also need excellent people skills, the ability to fix plumbing and furniture, photography chops, kidneys that can hold it in, and a stomach that can endure hunger.

Just kidding—but the real problem is that the pay isn't as ideal as imagined, with monthly wages often only between 3k and 5k, and the work isn't as easy as it looks. Pour-over coffee isn't appreciated by that many customers, and you must face their varying evaluations of your brewing. You feel deflated, then realize you haven't really learned much. So many baristas grow lost after a while, conclude the industry has no prospects, and change careers.

Does the Barista Profession Really Have No Room to Grow?

Many people think a barista's job is simply making coffee, but that underestimates the diversity of the coffee industry and its future potential. Coffee specialization extends far beyond specialty coffee shops, and "barista" is only a general term—you can be a roaster, a trainer, a café operator, a competitor, a competition judge, and much more.

Feel like none of those fit you? No, no, no—you can do it too. The prerequisite is stepping out of your comfort zone and refusing to settle. Baristas feel stuck because they spend all their time behind the counter, researching how to make coffee taste better and how to pour beautiful latte art, savoring the approval of customers.

Look closely at successful coffee professionals: how many of them simply stand behind a counter? They continuously learn everything about coffee—knowledge that goes far beyond brewing, down to details like how earthworm species affect coffee cultivation. Don't assume that has nothing to do with baristas: coffee growers are baristas too, and so are green coffee buyers.

Baristas have enormous development potential; it's just that most people have confined themselves to the space of making coffee.

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FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you're sharpening your pour-over skills behind that counter, the V60 is the dripper to master. It was designed by Hario, the Tokyo glassware maker founded in 1921, and reshaped into its modern form in 2004—its 60° cone funnels water to the center for thorough extraction, while the single large outlet leaves the flow rate entirely in your hands, which is exactly the feedback a practicing barista needs.

For light-roast practice beans, FrontStreet's Yirgacheffe Gedeb Cooperative lot shows clean, bright citrus and berry florals with a green-tea finish; the Ethiopia Hambella lot bursts with tropical fruit—strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit, lychee—with obvious sweetness and almost no bitterness; and the Panama Esmeralda Red Label Geisha is the pinnacle, with jasmine florals and citrus, bergamot, and black-tea refinement.

For medium-dark roasts, FrontStreet's PWN Golden Mandheling (herbal, dark chocolate, low acid), Brazil Queen Estate (balanced, nutty, caramel-sweet), Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 (creamy, honeyed, perfectly even), and the 2013 Yunnan sun-dried Typica (clean citrus and caramel with nut, chocolate, and brown sugar) round out a complete practice menu for any barista's dialing-in repertoire.