Barista Job Responsibilities: Is It Hard to Be a Barista at Specialty Coffee Shops vs. Chain Coffee Shops?

The Reality of Being a Barista: Beyond the Romanticized Dream

Since becoming a barista, this writer (yes, a writer who wears multiple hats including being a barista) often hears friends and customers exclaim: "Wow, you're a barista! I'm so envious! Your life is my dream! Your job must be so comfortable, right? Or baristas must earn high wages, right?" Stop, stop, stop! When exactly did being a barista start appearing so effortless to everyone, with supposedly high salaries?

Perhaps movies or social circles have overly romanticized café life. In many people's eyes, baristas spend their days bathing in warm, sunlight-filled shops, listening to melodious jazz, brewing aromatic pour-over coffee, creating beautifully patterned lattes, with determined eyes revealing confidence and brightness, watching customers come and go, and spending their days in comfort and peace...

I really can't make this up anymore!!! Wake up! A barista's work is no different from that of a general hand, really! And the wages are low... Many peers in the barista profession would say: "Being a barista can only be a lifestyle attitude; behind the scenes, you're just poor! You must have side hustles." This is really no exaggeration~ First, let's look at what work skills baristas need! (Since it's too long, I've written it in my notes and then took screenshots)

The Truth About Barista Work

Did you see the last two paragraphs of the bolded text in the image? "Salary doesn't matter, as long as I can survive with no money"... If you can accept this, welcome to the barista profession; if you can't, please consider carefully... Of course! More work, more pay—if a barista does things beyond making coffee, cleaning, and serving customers—that is, the things mentioned in the image after "preparing for new stores, bar counter design..."—then congratulations, you're a super barista with no rest time. To achieve this, you're either the boss or a barista for whom making coffee is just a part-time job.

All the beautiful imaginings are just built from the customer's perspective~ Behind the glamorous appearance of baristas lies immense bitterness... You might imagine customers as: gentle and considerate, coming over quietly, reading books, drinking coffee, enjoying coffee time.

Actual customers (some of them): chatting loudly, "Waiter, I want to order," leaving coffee aside while taking countless photos, "I want warm pour-over," "latte with no milk," "If there's no tea to drink, why open a coffee shop," "Do you have toothpicks here..." And the customers you imagine, the chance of meeting them is like finding a hidden item in a blind box.

The Reality of Coffee Shop Operations

Working in a coffee shop is leisurely? Not at all! Coffee shops come in thousands of forms—some sell cakes, light meals... and there are hybrid coffee shops that combine with bookstores, clothing stores, etc. Often, the busiest aspects of these shops aren't the coffee production, but various things other than coffee. nominally a barista, but actually just a server who can make coffee.

"No! I've really seen very leisurely coffee shops! The staff/owners are all sitting and looking at their phones/computers." Then there are two possibilities here: one is that the coffee shop is for offline experience, while the real business is e-commerce; the other is that you should cherish it while you can, because perhaps the owner is thinking about how much longer the funding can keep the café running.

Coffee shop customers are really not all artistic youths. They can be roughly divided into 3 major categories: ordinary consumers who quietly drink coffee after ordering—these are angels; picky coffee enthusiasts who criticize things they only half-understand, but as long as you have solid coffee knowledge to engage in dialogue, you can become their "expert"; and special groups with strong personal cultures who are self-centered, leaving you helpless.

The Skills and Challenges of Being a Barista

In addition to having excellent customer service skills, baristas also need to continuously improve their coffee knowledge—from agricultural cultivation to coffee knowledge, to coffee roasting, brewing, to industry news and development trends... one must have in-depth understanding of all things coffee to convey correct coffee culture concepts to coffee beginners, rather than just staying at "I want to make a good cup of coffee."

Secondly, many people want to become baristas because they can brew unlimited coffee and drink unlimited coffee every day. There's a saying that "when you have too much of something, it loses its value." When you're facing coffee all day long, and you're not genuinely interested in understanding coffee deeply, you'll quickly grow tired of this job, and eventually sigh with emotion: it's better to just remain an enthusiast.

Many peers in conversation mention that after making coffee/opening coffee shops, their temperaments have become more irritable, and stress has increased. Because it's completely different from what they originally imagined, and the work is very strenuous. Yes, if you initially just yearned for a life of making coffee and latte art, then reality will give you a heavy blow... Why? Because the best-selling item in coffee shops is lemon tea... (This is both a joke and many coffee shops' compromise to society).

Finding Success in the Coffee Industry

Although this article is long and advises everyone not to have overly idealized expectations about opening coffee shops/being baristas. Being a barista is not without future prospects, but everyone's thinking just停留在 "I like making coffee and drinking coffee." Opening a coffee shop isn't unable to make money, but you can't rely solely on ideals and sentiments to do business—at least in today's society, this is not feasible. Persisting in your ideals is a good thing, but reality is ultimately reality.

It's not that I don't support everyone in becoming baristas or opening coffee shops, but rather I hope everyone thinks clearly about what they want before doing this. In the few years of接触 this industry, this writer clearly knows that baristas in both chain coffee shops and independent coffee shops work very hard... The former are unfeeling coffee robots, but you can learn some management knowledge useful for your future work and cultivate a good temper for serving customers; the latter means you might be busiest not because of making coffee, but as long as you keep improving, continuously learning with humility or self-studying, you'll discover that the coffee industry has more interesting things beyond just making and drinking coffee. Only by becoming stronger yourself can you see further.

If you're choosing this profession just because you think being a barista is very easy, please think twice. All standing still won't bring you any progress, and will waste a lot of precious time.

Final Thoughts

All jobs have their own unspeakable difficulties; no job is truly comfortable. A sentence from a book once left a deep impression on this writer: "Your so-called stability and comfort are nothing but wasting life." Don't waste your precious "capital" because of something that temporarily feels comfortable.

Image source: Internet

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