Kiersten and the Importance of Transparency
Kiersten
Favorite drink: one and one – “which is a shot divided into a macchiato and then the rest of the shot.”
Favorite origin: Kenya
Favorite album to play at work: III by BADBADNOTGOOD.
Kiersten started in coffee three years ago, after moving to Seattle from Bend. Her first job was at a coffee shop that she dubs “the equivalent of Central Perk,” located in Seattle. “It was a true mom-and-pop shop- it was great. I adore them, they were some of the best people I’ve ever worked for.”
Kiersten was inspired to get into coffee after spending time traveling through Latin America (Bolivia, Peru and Brazil), from learning about roasting through her siblings, who are both garage roasters, and after meeting her partner, who was already working in coffee when they met.
“I knew my goal was to funnel more into coffee. I moved to Seattle with that mind-set, and I knew that I needed to start from the bottom… I got to know my coworkers at that first shop, and had really good times with them, even though I went in with full knowledge that I would be leaving as soon as possible.”
With her first few months of coffee work under her belt, Kiersten started to thirst for more knowledge. “I think my coworkers picked up on that really quickly, as I started to ask things like ‘how do I pour latte art? And ‘do you guys actually dial in your espresso,’ ‘why don’t we have a scale?’ There was a sense of ‘oh, you’re one of those people,’ and I was like ‘yes I am!’”
“I started that job in September and then in January there was a coffee expo-Seattle Coffee fest is what it was called- and I asked my boss, ‘ hey is there any way I could go for the company?’ and they said ‘ yeah that’s a great idea, you should go. Learn all that you want.’ So they bought me a pass and I went and I was just drooling. I was like ‘wow, what is that cone?! What is it called?? Why is there coffee coming out of it?’ I just knew there was this wide field of knowledge that I was about to sink my teeth into.”
“There was a latte art throw-down at a new company, they had just opened up a storefront downtown. I got to the throw-down too late to pour, but I stayed afterwards and I networked and met the owners. I talked to their wholesale training manager and I was like ‘ hey, can I pour a latte?’ and he said ‘yeah, come on back, pour a latte, want a job too??’- he contends he didn’t say that, but I swear he did! So I went back the next day with a resume, we chit-chatted a little bit, I asked about their coffee, I was super into it. It was all third wave caliber. A week later they called and set up an interview. Two weeks after the interview they called me back – the wait was excruciating- and they hired me! I worked there for 13 months. It’s where I consider that I got all my knowledge. Where I grew, where I blossomed. Where I became the barista I wanted to be. At that point I knew that I wanted it to be my career.”
After being apart from her partner and trying to make long distance work, Kiersten decided to move back to Bend. She was hired by a roaster she met through her partner to work in a small espresso bar inside of a grocery store.
“Unfortunately, the coffee gig at the grocery store ended up going south for me. They didn’t deliver on their promises. The roaster who I was working for directly is the best- nothing of that was in his control. But the owner of the grocery store that we were both working for- I am not a fan of that guy. I am not a fan of his procedures. I worked there for a total of six weeks and I ended up losing a lot of money.”
“When I started they were very understaffed, and the owner had so many big dreams and wanted them all to happen immediately. And so instead of opening on the date that he said, we didn’t open for six weeks. I was out of a paycheck for six weeks! I took the job thinking it was just going to be in coffee, and I ended up doing grocery store work. I felt mislead and taken advantage of; I was peeling stickers off of tomatoes and rearranging juice boxes. But the worst part for me was not making a living wage or being scheduled for the right amount of hours. I asked in the interview if they promised to give me a living wage and hours, and he was enthusiastic about being able to. But I went from 40 hours a week promised to 22. I would have liked to have known more about who this guy [the owner] was before taking the job- he didn’t have any experience owning a grocery store, he didn’t have any experience managing people closely.”
If she had been given more information upfront, Kiersten feels she could have made a more educated decision regarding whether or not this job was a good fit for her. “In the interview I just had for a job that I was offered- the manager was upfront with me. He said ‘I am gonna be honest with you- this is my 7th day in a row and I still have four more days to go. I want to apologize if I seem impatient and stressed, or snappy- because that is not who I am.’ And that was so refreshing, because it showed transparency, it showed a depletion of pride. Whereas the owner of the grocery store did everything possible not to hurt his pride. This made me feel like I could be honest. I was able to be upfront myself in the interview.”
“After leaving the grocery store café I tired to work at another coffee shop in Bend, but that also wasn’t a good fit. For four months, I felt like I couldn’t do anything right- there was just no trust. I feel bad that I couldn’t perform to their standards, but at the same time, I think their standards were unrealistic.”
And that was when her and her partner decided they wanted to get out of Bend and move to Portland.
“One word I would use to describe my time in coffee: rollercoaster. It was a slow start, and then all of a sudden it was going really really fast and I was stoked about where I was working in Seattle. And then it slowed back down in Bend. And now I feel like its picking back up again. I start a new job here in Portland next week, and it feels like things are falling into place.”
Reflecting on the last three years of her career, mostly she has felt welcomed into the coffee world, and has seen things changing for women within the industry.
“My partner and I recently both interviewed for the same job. The questions they asked us were very different. They asked him about his hobbies, but they asked me mostly profession questions.” The hiring company was forthcoming about wanting to hire a woman in order to even out their male dominated staff. Kiersten’s partner noted that they took her a lot more seriously than they took him. It felt like a move in the right direction, but also a bit strange. “I feel like, honestly, they were a little bit naïve. We both noticed the bias, but were also like ‘sweet, good for them, they should hire more women!’”
Advice Kiersten would give other baristas starting in the field: “shitty jobs get you better jobs.”
And as for her goals, “ I would really like to source coffee beans. I am really excited about the company that I am about to start working for because friends who are familiar with the company have told me that I will be able to wear lots of different hats. I really want to go back to Brazil, I really want to go back to Peru and shake the hands of the farmers. I would like to travel, I would like to touch a coffee plant. I want the whole process to be as transparent as possible. My end goal is to source beans, with an eye on sustainability and climate change.
Kiersten’s favorite part of the coffee world is the community. “I appreciate that within the coffee community I feel like I get to express myself visually and emotionally. When I am actually interacting with customers, I feel like I can be transparent about my life. I find that to be very attractive about our community, and I think now we are moving towards a more open community, inviting more people into our ‘club.’ I used to feel like such an elitist, being in the third wave industry, but I want to dissolve that, in myself and in our community.”