First Week at Starbucks

So...I haven't posted in a while, but my goal is to put up an update once a week while I'm at Starbucks for the summer. I am a summer intern in the Coffee Category at Starbucks, where I'm working with a fabulous team on a couple of interesting projects.

Tate and I road-tripped up from San Diego to Seattle the week before Memorial Day so that we could catch some ballgames and get my car up here. My first day was June 5, and to start things off, there was a half-day orientation for new Partner Interns (Partners = Employees). The other Category interns (in groups like Espresso, Food, Blended Drinks, and Merchandise) don't start until 6/12, but there were a number of interns who were starting in CPG, Strategy, Retail Finance, Supply Chain, Store Development, Real Estate, and a couple other areas. Including undergraduates, the company is employing almost 70 interns - 5 in the "core" business of Category Management.

Also as part of the training, I underwent the first of 3 sessions required to obtain "Coffee Master" status. This is the status afforded to those who are truly knowledgeable about coffee - you can recognize Coffee Masters in the stores by their black (vs. traditional green) aprons. One of my goals is to become a Coffee Master by the end of the summer, which all of my colleagues assure me is attainable if I work at it.

So far I've "tasted" (the formal process can be daunting, but fun) 4 different coffees. Soon I'll get to lead a tasting for my department, by brewing coffee in a french press and serving it to 5-8 others and collecting everyone's opinions on the flavor.

For the rest of Monday, I spent time filling out the new hire paperwork and getting to know members of my team. My director is Kim Malek, who's been at Starbucks for 7 years. I love the team - they have spent varying amounts of time with the company, and are a blast to work with. The culture at Starbucks is really collaborative - to a fault, some believe, but it's refreshing for many Partners who have worked in very traditional businesses to come here and be in a more entrepreneurial, team-based environment.

On Tuesday, I continued to have a number of 1:1 meetings with folks from the cross-functional team I'll be working with this summer. I'll be working directly with Partners in marketing, supply chain, creative, operations, and other areas - which is much more of a macro experience than I had in consulting. It's important to build solid relationships and really understand what makes people tick so that the work experience is good for everyone on the team.

On Wednesday, the Category groups had an informal 2-hour sit-down with Jim Donald, the CEO. I got a bit of 1:1 time with him, enough to recognize the sincerity of his messages. He talked a lot in the meetings about the key strategic initiatives of the next 5 years, and took some tough questions about Health/Wellness, the company's presence in media, and even the food in the cafeteria. It was nice to hear him say that family and personal lives have to come first in order to be an effective contributor to the Partner team.

By the end of the week, I started to understand more about my core project. I can't say too much about the specifics, but I can say that it relates to Whole Bean (bagged) coffees in the Starbucks stores. It's something that the team has wanted to look at for a while, but hasn't had the chance to until this point.

The weather in Seattle is starting to break, though most of the days have been mid-60s so far. There are a couple other interns here from Haas, the intern team from Starbucks is great, Elisa is back home working for the Gates Foundation, and I'm living with her parents, so the personal situation is just fine. Amy and I are going back to Toledo for a wedding this weekend. I love red-eye flights...