Most of us have visited a café before, but have you ever thought about what it would be like to work in one? Most cafés are a bit like ducks – everything looks calm and in control on the surface, but beneath the water they are paddling like mad to keep things going.
In a café, people work in a team to prepare food and drinks for customers. Usually, cafés serve hot drinks like coffee and tea, as well as cakes and pastries and light meals. They are usually open early in the morning, so that people can get their coffee and breakfast on their way to work, and stay open for lunch but close up after that and don’t offer an evening meal service.
While every café is different, they tend to have a few things in common:
- Things move quickly – customers don’t like to wait too long for their coffee, so café workers need to be able to handle the fast pace of service.
- Cleanliness is key – there are strict food hygiene standards that all cafés need to meet, and you’ll need to be prepared to keep things clean at all times.
- You’ll be serving a lot of customers – which means you will need good people skills and the ability to greet and serve customers in a way which gives them a good experience (otherwise they won’t come back).
Key Outcome – keeping people fed and caffeinated
Each café needs to make a profit so it can stay open, and they make their money by selling food and drinks to customers. They make it easy for people to find a quick break when they are out and about, and they are also often social places where people feel safe to meet.
Key Tasks –
- Make coffee and other hot drinks for customers
- Provide pre-prepared food, and/or make food on the premises for customers
- Keep the café and eating area clean and safe
- Clearly communicate the types of food and drink on offer
You can find cafés in the hospitality industry
The hospitality industry also includes bars and restaurants, travel and tourism, some beauty services – pretty much anything that serves customers. This industry is focused on providing services that are usually considered to be optional – it’s not essential for us to eat out – which means that most businesses in this industry need to deliver a positive experience for customers.
Work Environment
You can expect shifts and on-site work in a range of locations
Shift Work | Work on-site | Jobs in all locations, including metro, regional, and rural | Job growth depends on location
Most people who work in a café work outside of the standard 9am to 5pm work hours – they are at work whenever the café is operating. This means they usually don’t work in the evenings, unless they are preparing for the next day.
It is very difficult to serve coffee from home, but some roles may be remote, for example, the bookkeeper for the café may work from home, and many cafés source baked goods and pastries from people who bake in their own kitchens or in offsite commercial kitchens.
You’ll find cafés just about anywhere you can find people – even the smallest towns tend to have a café or two. That means there are lots of opportunities in a huge range of locations, but it also makes it difficult to define the growth areas. It’s likely that there will be higher job growth in locations with population growth or strong tourism numbers.
The Career Clusters you’ll find in a café
Some cafés are owned and operated by just one or two people, but others have teams of staff, and the size of the café will impact on the number of Clusters you find within it. You’ll generally find Makers and Linkers, as well as Coordinator or two as the managers, but the other Clusters may be outsourced roles.
