Barista Training

September 1st 1999 was my first day as a Starbucks partner.

I was slated to attend some classroom training at the Starbucks Support Centre or SSC. Isn’t that cool? It’s not their head office, it’s their Support Centre. I think that is so cool! The title, to me, doesn’t just mean it’s called differently, but it also describe the function of the departments oh so clearly; that they were there to support the partners out in the field. I mean the stores. So, to me, that says a lot.

By this time, I have shifted from Shah Alam to Ampang, thanks to a buddy of mine who had a spare room in his place. My mode of transportation was BEV7558, my loyal Honda EX5 motorbike. Very, very, practical – I could pretty much reach any destination within kl in 15-20 minutes. Yup, it’s totally possible! It’s also very generous - it dished out gifts without you asking for them, no special occasion required. I’ve gotten the wire-in-my-eye gift and of course, who can forget the infamous curry puff-eating-amnesia-causing event of the year 2000? Errr…actually, I kinda did. Hahahahaha! But let’s save that for another day.

Since I wasn’t very familiar with KL at that time, my housemate, Sigh 8, said he would drive me over to Plaza Berjaya for my first few days of work. I sorta knew that the Bukit Bintang – Imbi area is kinda hectic with traffic, so I was a little worried about getting there on time. I kept asking what time we should leave the house to get there by 9am. Sigh 8 was much more relaxed about it though, so I thought it shouldn’t be a problem. He’s doing me a favor after all. So I just went with the flow. When the morning came, we left the house and got stuck in traffic, starting right in Ampang itself. Naturally, I started to get really tensed, but I didn’t wanna overreact, cos beggars can’t be choosers, so I kept saying, it’s okay….it’s okay……….we still have time……….i think it should be okay……..it should be alright…

IT WASN’T OKAY. I was late. I reached the training centre at about 9:15am – 15 minutes late, ON MY FIRST DAY OF WORK!! I apologized to the Training Manager, TBL and shamely, took my seat. There were about 7 other trainees in that room. And they were on time. I promised myself there and then that I will not be late for class again. Ever.

The training session had a lot of sharing and activities. We were sharing things like “My favorite place to shop” and “My favorite place to eat”. Angie’s favorite place was SS2 because there’s plenty of food to choose from and the prices were reasonable. I had no idea where this SS2 was of course. My favorite shopping place was Carrefour , which was also my workplace. hahaha! I then learned that Angie and I will be working at Starbucks KL Plaza.

We were also taught on how to steam milk and make beverages. There was this scary/funny moment when one of the trainees did something wrong while steaming milk and got sprayed with milk all over the face and body! That got me panicked a bit, but nonetheless, it was funny to see. Hahahahahah! Oh come on! You’d be laughing too! Oh, in case you’re wondering, it wasn’t Angie, she did well. Don’t assume. Hehehe…

At the end of the last day of training, we were told this by TBL “Everything you’ve heard and everything we’ve talked about in this training, is the ideal way. It’s how it should be, in an ideal environment. Now, outside this training room, at the stores, that’s the reality. So don’t panic if you see something that is different than what you see here, and don’t expect everything to be perfect” That got me thinking a bit.

And then I said to myself “You better not be late on your first day of work at the store!”