How To Be A Barista With No Experience
The Head Barista at Penny University spills the beans.
Take it from Fahmi, who’s been busting out brews at Penny University since the artisanal coffeehouse opened its doors along East Coast road in 2012. His love affair with coffee was sparked when he landed his first part-time job at Starbucks at the age of 20.
He hasn’t looked back since.
Fahmi is now the manager and Head Barista at Penny University, where his responsibilities range from staffing, cafe operations, job interviews to training baristas from scratch. And of course, making delicious cups of coffee.
His main goal — to achieve consistency in the quality of coffee served by all baristas at Penny University.
But for aspiring baristas with no experience whatsoever, getting a foot into the industry can be a daunting prospect.
The good news is — experience isn’t necessarily the most important thing. Here are Fahmi’s top tips for the uninitiated:
#1: Show your commitment
“At Penny University, we train from scratch. We have a queue of people on waitlist for training, so feel free to join it.
I personally prefer transferring my knowledge to someone who shows commitment, especially since it takes some time to train this person. I don’t want to waste my time training someone who’s going to up and leave the next second.”
#2: Be ready to take criticism
“You have to not mind being told off, but in a good way of course. Sometimes I find it tough to take criticism myself.
I mean, no one likes being told off. But if someone gives feedback to me in a pleasant way about my coffee, that can be useful.”
#3: Be prepared to drink copious amounts of good and bad coffee
“Every morning, we have to calibrate the beans.
Day to day, the beans age, so there will be less gas (CO2) left in the beans. The temperature of the grinder’s blades can also affect the coffee grind.
So we have to tweak the grind size to be coarser or finer, and taste all the brews.”
#4: Being an early bird is a plus
“Start early, and take your time to settle in before the rush hour arrives.
If you come in 10 minutes before the cafe opens, you have 10 minutes to set up. You end up feeling the pressure from when you first step in.”
#5: Coffee quality > Coffee art
“Being a barista is more than just the art.
It actually really requires a lot of time just to get the taste right. In fact, that’s what we stress on a lot here at Penny. The quality of our coffee is much more important than the art.”
#6: It’s not just about playing with coffee machines
“On the surface, many might think it’s a cool job. It looks like fun, making coffee with these cool machines.
But the thing is, it’s really like any other regular job.
Working in F&B is stressful by nature, even if you’re just doing service. As long as you are in the frontline, you’ll feel the pressure because you are the first contact point with the customers.
Some customers are really nice, yet you can still get a handful of them who are really nasty. Some would even raise their voices at you.
I’ve even seen cases where my staff would break down and cry after a humiliating episode.
We always try our best to be nice. But if certain individuals still persist in being unpleasant, we would eventually have to tell them off.
In the past, there used to be a saying, ‘The customer is always right’. But lately that perspective has changed to, ‘If they are not right, they will never be right’.
We have to stand up for our rights.
But still, l enjoy serving the coffee to customers on a whole. It can easily be the best part of the job, especially when they tell you that they love the coffee. It really gives me a sense of satisfaction.”
#7: Be prepared to fight societal misconceptions
“I had a staff once that joined us full-time. One day, she told us she wanted to quit, and we asked why.
She told us her parents didn’t like the job. They were both doctors, so they wanted their daughter to get a ‘proper job’.
In Singapore, being a barista is still not considered a proper career. It’s different in countries like Australia, where the coffee culture is stronger and being a barista is a highly regarded job. They are also paid better over there.
I feel Singaporeans still need to work on their definition of a ‘proper job’. Working in the F&B industry isn’t necessarily something you only do part-time while on school vacation.
Being a barista is more than a summer job.
And like any other job, F&B is really hard work. It involves lot of physical, mental and emotional labour.
There is career progression in the process, certificates to be accredited with and it’s certainly not a dead end. ”
Keen to be a coffee apprentice at Penny University? You can email Fahmi at fahmi@pennyuni.com.
