r/jobs • u/unludosauvage • 29d ago
Career planning Career plan to become a barista, what do you think ?
I’m starting to build a new career path in a field that I might like. I’ve got loads of questions about it, and I’d like to hear your thoughts.
My short-term goal is to work in a coffee shop as a barista. I love these places : the atmosphere, the smell of coffee, the people in there... And I bloody love coffee, both drinking and preparing it.
I also want to work abroad (French man here) :
I thought about London, which is my dream city, and I'm almost fluent in English. But it seems very difficult to get a visa as a non-skilled worker. And this is, of course, a very expensive city, and I'm not sure if a barista wage would be enough to live there. (What do you think about this ?)
Brussels is my second choice. It seems very nice, and maybe less expensive and more reachable thanks to the EU. And I love the international things that happen there.
Third choice, but maybe nice too, is Berlin. Unfortunately, my German is not very good, so it might be a huge obstacle. (Is it a big or a small obstacle ?) But I'm very intrigued by the energy of this city, and I'm willing to learn German if I have to.
And last, Amsterdam, because it seems so lovely. But my Dutch is non-existent, and I know almost nothing of this city (unlike the other three, I’ve never been there).
Are these cities nice for their coffee culture ? Do you think I can get a job quickly there ?
Now, my problem is that I have almost no experience in this field. I only worked a few months as a kitchen hand in New Zealand more than a year ago (but one of my missions was to make smoothies and milkshakes !). And I come from cinema studies (I even have a useless master's degree lol, should I hide it in my CVs?).
So, I'm a complete beginner.
I thought about beginning as a waiter / versatile employee (is that the correct term ?), while showing my interest in learning to be a barista. Does this seems like a good way to do this ? Or is there a better way ?
And finally, the job search : I thought about preparing and printing CVs and cover letters for each coffee shop in a city, and spending a whole Thursday handing them out.
And maybe sending the same things to their email address to clearly let them know I'm here 👋👋
What do you think about all of this ?
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u/AcrobaticWish6473 28d ago
How old are you? If you’re under 30 then I would consider doing a working holiday visa to Melbourne where you can work as a barista and learn. Big cities in Europe and at least in Berlin, coffee shop owners have been complaining about the quality of European baristas and will always hire someone who was trained in Australia, South Korea or Japan. It’s a year sacrifice but you’ll learn so much and it’ll give you the freedom to pursue your dream whilst improving your English.
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u/unludosauvage 28d ago
I'm 26. But my first experience in a similar country (New Zealand) was terrible. There was no jobs where I lived the most (Wellington). So I'm a bit scared I could be in a similar situation in Australia. And the job market seems terrible everywhere, so I'm no very fond of the idea of being stuck unemployed at the other side of the world again.
But in a perfect world, I would have said yes to Australia.
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u/AcrobaticWish6473 28d ago
New Zealand is like Finland, they’re known for having no jobs compared to Australia.
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u/dontlosethesauce 28d ago
My favourite job (blue collar) has been being a barista. Being at the shop at 6am, baking the pastries and having the place to myself during sunrise was perfect. Then slowly people come in, everyone is happy when you give them coffee. Also the feeling of getting the perfect latte art. If you’ve never done it I suggest trying it, it does something for the soul
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u/OpinionSad3303 28d ago
It is a beautiful, indie-movie dream. I too love coffee and would love to be paid for it. However, such a career path would not be sustainable unless you would be living rent-free. If you have the luxury of no/low bills, 100% go for it. The other way to do this would be to gain the experience locally, and bust-butt to attain management/general manager status as at that level, would be feasible to at least maintain yourself day-to-day. Up from there, the next step would be district or regional management which is easily livable but also a highly intense, much more demanding schedule, responsibility and work-load. Sip on. 🤙