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THE BARISTA RESUM É B Y A S H L E Y R O D R I G U E Z AS A BARISTA, YOU GET A LOT OF QUESTIONS while youÕre standing behind the bar. "What time are you open until?" says the computer lurker in the corner working on his fourth free refill. "Are any of these pastries gluten-free?" asks the health-conscious mom juggling three kids, a yoga mat, and her Google calendar as seamlessly as if she were simply checking her watch for the time. Sometimes, a curious regularÑmaybe someone who youÕre just friendly enough with to pick up a cup and ask, "The usual?"Ñwill attempt to break the barrier between customer and barista with the query, "Are you guys hiring?" When you ask for a resumŽ, however, they stare at you blankly and say, "Oh, I need a resumŽ to apply for a barista job?" Their surprise isnÕt totally unexpected, of course. DonÕt you and your coworkers look like youÕre always having fun, chatting with people, and listening to cool music? DonÕt you and your fellow baristas just get to sit back and make jokes and put out pretty coffee drinks for people all day? This job canÕt be that hard, can it? Little do they, or most people, know, under that seemingly easy banter between you and your colleagues, or the perfectly paced efficiency with which you handle a morning rush, that your brain is running a mile a minute. You have to figure out which of the six tasks at hand you have to do first while simultaneously moving the line and carrying on a dozen conversations, both with customers and your fellow staff members of whom you may not be very fond. While itÕs important to make your job look like a breeze when youÕre behind the bar, itÕs equally important to find ways to speak intelligently about how you make your job look easy and other skills youÕve developed working behind that espresso machine, namely in the form of a resumŽ. Whether youÕre navigating the coffee scene looking for an entry-level barista job, or youÕre trying to expand your coffee career beyond the bar, writing a resumŽ that smartly reflects the skills youÕve developed or are looking to acquire is key, and is something that many baristas, both experienced and otherwise, miss the mark on. Luckily, there are some easy ways to address some common resumŽ-writing mistakes and make yours shine on any hiring managerÕs desk. T H E I M P O R T A N C E O F " S O F T S K I L L S " In a recent op-ed piece for The New York Times, Laszlo Bock, head of hiring for Google, noted that the number of people Google has employed without a college degree has increased over the years. Why? Because theyÕve determined that "G.P.A.s are worthless as a criteria for hiring, and test scores are worthless... We found that they donÕt predict anything." Instead, Google looks to recruit people who have highly developed "cognitive skills," or skills that help them understand and use information around them. Learning ability, processing skills, and being able to organize and queue tasks and ideas all fall under this category, and Google recruiters are finding that these skills have less to do with what you know versus how you use what you know. How does this relate to coffee jobs? Go back to that cafŽ scenario earlier, where you have to keep your cool despite a million other things going on around you. In that situation, and in many others that occur everyday in most cafŽs, your coffee knowledge isnÕt what shines; itÕs how B A R I S T A M A G A Z I N E C O M M I T T E E F O R A D V A N C E M E N T P R E S E N T S 78 barista magazine B o o k 4 7 - 9 2 . i n d d 7 8 Book 47-92.indd 78 5 / 1 5 / 1 4 1 0 : 4 6 P M 5/15/14 10:46 PM