Poor Pay, otherwise great job and perfect for a student
Pros
It was fun working with a team. I'm not sure if I'll ever have a workplace experience quite like that again. Loved working together to multitask during a rush (making drinks, serving food, brewing coffee, busing tables). Very satisfying. I loved my coworkers and enjoyed the regular customers. So many laughs. It was hard to make the decision to go when I finally decided I needed a "real" job. Also, love the Starbucks culture--very liberal, open, and accepting.
Cons
Poor pay--I started at $9/hour. But I worked there for under 2 years and was up to $9.50 by the time I quit. But still, for the fast-paced, tiring labor that is required from a barista along with the ability to withstand occasional abuse, it didn't make sense to me. I finally went off and found a job that paid double for half the amount of work. The customer service aspect became a con for me. Having to paste a smile on and speak in that friendly, high-pitched tone all the time. And then there were the customers that were abusive... over coffee? Come on, guys! I thought it was just horrible that middle aged, privileged people would take out their immature, misplaced rage on teenagers over a steamed beverage. I was on the fence about quitting for awhile then a couple very negative customer experiences pushed me out for good. Another huge factor in me leaving was a new manager coming in and bringing in new staff from her old store when we already didn't have enough hours. And then some kind of policy changed and supposedly the manager did not have the freedom to schedule 3 people in the mornings anymore or at key rush points. Not enough hours overall, combined with being short on staff when actually working made the whole store extremely unhappy.