Must-Have Barista Skills to Land An Entry-Level Job

Barista is a perfect entry position for a career start. If you think of becoming a Barista, you will need to acquire a list of certain skills. In this article, we will explore essential skills for a barista and how to craft a winning barista resume for the position. Any of your accomplishments are relevant. Therefore, make good use of them in your resume.

What is a Barista? 

Before learning how to be a barista, you should know what do baristas do. A barista may have many talents: brew coffee, deal with customers, work with the register, and be a good part of a team. 

Companies like Starbucks create many opportunities for people to start a career and acquire basic professional skills. Baristas should know how to brew different sorts of coffee, manage orders, keep a shop in order, and communicate with clients. Almost any modern professional story starts with the position of a barista. 

Barista Technical Skills 

Many employers take job seekers without any job experience at all. Yet, some positions may require certain barista technical skills. The most important skills related to serving soft drinks: 

• Coffee brewing and tasting 
• Latte art 
• Tea brewing 
• Juice bar drinks 
• Inventory management 

In small coffee shops, a barista may work with a register system. A barista is responsible for the cash register and related operations. 

Carefully read the position description before your resume submission. A hiring manager may even ask you to brew a drink during an interview. 

Barista Non-Technical Skills 

There are more skills required for barista than simple drinks. A good barista is capable of listening, contributing to teamwork, and serving orders. Soft skills are natural talents that you develop through time. If you have some of them, you may become a fine barista. These include

• Attention
• Good communication skills 
• Time management 
• Customer care
• Humor 

Reliability is the most important among other baristas’ soft skills. If your team and your employer can rely on you and be sure that you always come on time, it may contribute to the business greatly. 

Make sure your set of courses specializes in teaching you how to communicate with others. Sure, you’ll perform administrative duties. But you’ll also be a vital link in the communication process. Hence, click here to investigate how to be an administrative assistant and do your job properly.

Skills for a Perfect Barista 

Baristas may develop many practical, professional skills. Yet, there is the barista skill set that will help you succeed in the career field. Modern coffee shops have a lot of automation that increases work efficiency. Therefore, recruiters pay attention to soft skills and your personal qualities. 

The key skills for a barista are: 

• Attention to detail
• Specific knowledge about coffee
• Multitasking
• Money management 
• Customer service. 

Attention to Detail

Attention to detail is one of the essential skills needed to be a barista. A barista can apply it to any responsibility they have. Close attention to detail implies that a shop, equipment, and surfaces are clean and safe before closure.

Any coworkers will appreciate the attention to detail, even outside the career field of a barista. You can develop this skill on your own by being attentive to your everyday surroundings. 

Specific Knowledge about Coffee

It is not enough to know how to brew coffee. Specific knowledge about different sorts of coffee and ways of its preparation is among vital skills to be a barista. A good barista should know the difference between an Americano and espresso to serve it right to the customers. 

It takes a few weeks of work to acquire the necessary knowledge. Yet, these weeks make a difference between a regular barista and a professional one. 

Multitasking 

Sometimes, you need to utilize all the skills of a barista at once. Coffee shops have busy days often. Baristas need to manage different tasks simultaneously. You may need to answer the phone, communicate with customers, and serve drinks. 

It may sound difficult, but it is a good skill to have. Multitasking will help you stand out and prove yourself as an efficient employee. 

Money Management 

The ability to handle money is among the key skills for barista. Money management is more than simple calculation. You need to know how to operate a cash register and find a solution for any possible problem related to it. 

An outcome of many difficult situations comes from the barista’s ability to manage the money of the shop. Learn more about the coffee shop’s cash register before applying for the position. 

Customer Service 

If you ask what skills does a barista need, you will receive customer service for the answer. Good customer service not only brings tips but helps businesses too. Customer service responsibilities include communication with clients, listening to their orders, and maintaining a friendly attitude throughout the day. 

Customer service is a combination of professional and communication skills. If you can deal with different sorts of people, you will be a great barista.

How to Improve Barista Skills

If you wonder how to improve skills of barista, there is a simple, straightforward answer: you need to work as a barista. However, you will need a well-made resume to get a job. Did you know that more than 95 percent of Fortune 500 companies use an ATS to streamline the recruiting process and keep up with the thousands of applications received weekly? 

Professional writers on Skillhub will help you develop a resume with good experience. If you want an entry-level resume, there will be no issues with making one either. A good resume is key to a confident career start.

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Follow the influencers in the Field 

Following educational resources related to a career is a practical way of preparation before the job. In the following resources, you may find practical tips and tricks for baristas’ training. 

Barista blog: 

Twitter accounts: 

1. Coffee Geek. A Twitter account of CoffeeGeek.com chief editor. The account gives a professional look at coffee service. 
2. CoffeeCup News. It is a great blog if you want to learn how to speak about coffee with your customers. 
3. Coffee Zen. The account publishes many educational and scientific articles about coffee beans and the caffeine effect. 

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How to Showcase Your Skills 

The best way to highlight skills needed for barista in your resume is to give them substantial numbers. You may write that you can handle a complicated custom order. Yet, dealing with three orders at once will sound more professional. 

An organization where you try to land a job may use an ATS machine. Therefore, you need to provide strict, measurable levels of your proficiency rather than mannered descriptions. 

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Barista Skills in a Resume Skills Section 

The best way to describe your barista qualifications in your resume is through bullet points. A well-qualified candidate will have soft skills and hard skills. A potential employer will appreciate such formatting and recognize the prospects of such cooperation. 

Barista’s hard skills: 

• Brewing Americano, espresso, cappuccino, etc. 
• Quick accounting for manual cash registers. 
• Excess knowledge of coffee sorts and types of preparation. 

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Barista’s soft skills: 

• Empathy
• Communicative
• Punctuality 
• Attention to detail 
• Working in teams. 

How to Showcase Your Skills in the Work Experience Section

Usually, barista job requirements are not demanding for new employees. Yet, a hiring manager will appreciate it if you have something in your experience section. Similarly to the skills section, you need to provide concrete examples of your proficiency in the section: 

Example: 

Barista & Cashier 

Costa Coffee, Sheboygan Falls.

November 2018 - December 2020

Responsibilities: 

• Serving coffee in different techniques. 
• Maintenance of dining area
• Order acceptance and money calculation. 

Achievements: 

• Reached 95% customer satisfaction rate within a year, according to receipt surveys. 

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To Sum Up 

Everyone can acquire the skills needed to be a barista. With time and practice, you will have decent experiences in the field. Yet, if you want to get more interviews, you will need a professional resume. 

ATS systems look for skills for a barista with certain programmed criteria. Our resume writers will help you create a professional resume. It will allow you to engage in the field more confidently.