Is Being a Barista an Easy and Comfortable Job? What's the Typical Salary for Baristas at Independent Coffee Shops?

The Challenge of Finding Skilled Baristas in the Coffee Industry

During the Spring Festival, a friend asked me: "I see many private coffee shops doing great business, but they only have one or two main proprietors busy with everything. Don't they plan to hire more baristas to help?"

Coincidentally, many coffee industry professionals have been discussing in chat groups recently: "Recruiting is really difficult nowadays! I don't ask for much - just someone who respects and understands the barista profession and doesn't have a careless attitude... everything else is negotiable."

Seeing this, many people might say: "There are so many coffee shops! How could they not find baristas?" While there are many "baristas," there are actually very few who truly know how to make coffee...

As someone in the coffee industry myself, I deeply understand the feelings of coffee shop owners. After all, finding a barista who truly has a foundation in coffee making and is willing to settle down and learn coffee knowledge is extremely difficult... I've seen many resumes from applicants listing extensive work experience: 6 months as a barista at a certain chain coffee shop; 2 months as a bar assistant at another coffee shop... Skills listed: espresso making, bar management, hygiene management...

The result is that many baristas, once removed from mechanized coffee-making processes, cannot use semi-automatic espresso machines, don't recognize coffee beans, can't froth milk properly, don't know how to distribute and tamp coffee before extraction, leave the bar area in poor condition after making coffee, and produce terrible drinks... Yet the barista themselves see no problem and won't humbly ask for guidance on how to improve.

At the same time, salary expectations are quite idealistic. Many baristas believe that as long as they have "work experience," they should start at 5-6k salary. When they hear the actual offer is only 3.5k-4k, their attitude immediately collapses, and they turn and leave...

This puts many coffee shop owners in a difficult position... because they need to spend time retraining baristas, while the baristas themselves have no interest in coffee - they just think the barista profession has a low barrier to entry. This increases both the time and cost of training.

What Makes a True Barista?

Many people think that anyone standing behind a coffee shop counter making coffee is a barista, and indeed, this understanding isn't wrong. However, a truly qualified barista doesn't just make coffee - more importantly, they can give coffee beans a "third life" through proper brewing. If the person brewing the coffee knows nothing about the beans they're working with, even if the coffee beans are of high quality and properly roasted, they won't be properly extracted in the final brewing process, affecting people's evaluation of both the coffee beans and the coffee shop.

The barista profession isn't just about making coffee - it's more importantly about spreading correct coffee knowledge, not just staying at the level of "just brewing." When customers visit private coffee shops, they often hope to interact with the barista and learn more about coffee knowledge, rather than just grabbing their drink to go like at chain coffee shops.

Many private coffee shop owners also hope their baristas can bring more coffee knowledge to customers. Therefore, when hiring baristas, many owners place more importance on the barista's accumulated coffee knowledge, understanding, and flexible application of that knowledge. Experience is secondary, after all, having experience doesn't necessarily mean they truly know coffee.

The Path to Professional Excellence

Are the wages at private coffee shops too low? Not necessarily - earning over 10,000 a month isn't impossible, but the premise is that the barista truly needs to work hard to improve themselves. Baristas who win competitions, well-known coffee shop owners... those people you think are amazing - their success is inseparable from their efforts, they work incredibly hard!

They seize every learning opportunity, whether it's reading books, consulting experienced colleagues, or analyzing existing coffee knowledge and data... They grasp every chance to improve themselves, then day after day, they research, refine, and practice their coffee brewing skills. At the same time, they continuously learn and research more coffee knowledge, enhancing their coffee expertise, making the coffee they prepare more meaningful and thoughtful.

Coffee shops are short-staffed, and owners feel helpless too. Their requirements aren't excessive - they just hope that every friend who wants to become a barista can approach this profession with the right attitude and treat the barista profession with the respect it deserves.

Image source: Internet

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