Starbucks is fast-paced, fascinating, and a pretty great job in the non-professional field.
Pros
As everyone knows, Starbucks offers an insanely good health benefits package to all employees working 20+ hours per week. It's a "real" benefits package, like one would receive for working for the state or other professional job, unlike other places, which offer things like doctor visits at ten times the cost of "real" insurance, but no prescription coverage or hospital coverage. Plus there is the free pound of coffee beans per week, free beverages on the clock and 30% off all merchandise (beans, coffee makers, mugs, drinks). Benefits-wise, this is a heckuva job. It is also fun—you get to do something that utterly fascinates people. I was constantly being asked about my job outside of work—"How do you make my drink?" "How much caffeine?" I learned a lot about coffee, about customer service, and about doing things as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality. I moved up very quickly; I was a supervisor within a year, even though I had no previous management experience. You receive tips as a barista, which is a nice little added bonus (plus, since the pay is bi-weekly and the tips are weekly, it's good for some emergency pocket money at just the right time). The fast pace means shifts go by quickly. Employers love to see a long stint at Starbucks on a resumé—the skills you learn there are really helpful in other work environments.
Cons
It is really easy to become sucked in to the Starbucks life. It's like a different world. Eventually, the only people you hang out with work there too, and all you do with your free time is talk about Starbucks—wacky customers, gross drink orders, the new menu item. I let it get to be too large a part of my life, and ended up quitting school because the pay was too good. Also, even though there is the claim that the company will pay for your school, this rarely happens. The fine print mentions that they will only pay for certain types of classes (business, for example). Plus, the company seems to be really good at making you feel guilty for even going to school in the first place. Getting the stores I worked at to agree to let me have my school days free was always a pain in the neck. I am also not a terribly big fan of Starbucks' coffee farming practices go, and often got to feel a little "dirty" about working there. They treat their domestic employees great, but overseas this is not necessarily the case. I also feel that management has too much freedom, and since this is a company in which it is easy to get promoted, a lot of the managers are quite young and rather inexperienced at managing a staff of 13, leading to favoritism, unfair treatment, and a general lack of professionalism. Also, for some reason, customers seem to be really serious about their coffee. I've had drinks thrown at me twice (once it was 120° tea). Management does not generally stand up for baristas/ supervisors in these situations, instead taclking the task of placating the customer.
