“The Summit is hiring Blue Bottle, Ritual, or Four Barrel trained Baristas ONLY,” reads this Craigslist ad, “DO NOT APPLY IF YOU HAVE NOT BEEN TRAINED BY EITHER COMPANY.”
So angry! Why exclude people AND be so mean about it?
Well, reader Meredith Scheff wanted some answers too, so she replied to the ad:
I was really excited when you opened. I love the idea and spirit behind the café and your business, I love your welcoming atmosphere, I love the aesthetics and the food. I also was excited to see your ad posted on Craigslist. I would love to work with you! I’m a long time foodie, a pretty damn good cook, and I’ve worked as a barista and view it as an art. I geek out on it, is what I’m saying. Then I read this:
[Here she quotes the line quoted above.]
WHOA there Summit. This is totally un-excellent. You mean to tell me that my love of food and coffee only counts if I have been employed by one of a few select places? I’m pretty sure I’ve run across some pretty-damn-crapy baristas at those places- and some pretty damn good ones at ‘lesser’ cafés. These places hire a handful of people at most, and that means there are plenty of us food-loving coffee-nerds that would be a great fit for you.
I look forward to hearing your reply, as this has put a terrible taste in my mouth about your business.
Blam! I was like,”Suck it, Summit! No WAY you’ll recover from THEM APPLES!!” But then their Managing Director replied with a perfectly understandable explanation of the situation:
we’re in a bind where we need to plug in baristas quickly. we prefer blue bottle trained baristas because our contract with them specifies that anyone that makes their coffee must be trained by them. the training takes 2 weeks! it shortens if you’re trained by ritual or 4 barrel.
as a side note: if we had the time, we’d open up the applicant pool to everyone. when we opened we didn’t make this same requirement. in fact none of our opening baristas were from blue bottle, ritual, etc. we looked for people exactly like you and we invested over 40hrs of coffee training with our staff.
sucks that time is not on my side this time around.
Bummer indeed! Anyway, if you, like Meredith, were put off by this ad, don’t blame the Summit. They seem well intentioned and all… Okay, here comes the punch line. Say it with me, as it is such a popular mantra lately: BLAME BLUE BOTTLE. (Just kidding, mostly.)
[Photo by Everett Bogue]
Full text of the ad after the jump, in case it expires:
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