With 25 years of experience roasting, brewing and selling coffee we’ve seen a lot of career paths forged along the way. We’re now a team of nearly 50 people with unique skill sets in everything from production to tech services to cafe management to marketing. And something that a lot of our team have in common (although not all!) is that they started their journey as baristas.
Working as a barista can be a fulfilling and rewarding role. For too long these jobs have been devalued. Many who work in the industry will be familiar with those triggering questions at family meals, usually something along the lines of: ‘when are you going to get a real job.’ Can we sigh any louder?
For those that are interested, working as a barista can lead down a rewarding and interesting career pathway, following diverse rabbit holes such as the science of roasting the coffee itself to the ways in which we connect these coffees to customers through admin, logistics, account management, training, sales and digital marketing.
We caught up with Nicole, Emily, Demi, Jo and Becky to find out how they got to where they are today, as well as what a career in coffee looks like for them.
Nicole, Managing Director
Since joining Climpsons in 2011, I’ve grown alongside the specialty coffee industry. My role is focused on the big picture—shaping our business strategy, culture, and long-term vision to ensure we’re continually moving forward and learning as a business and an industry. I work across all areas of the business, asking the key questions: How do we attract and retain customers? How do we create a thriving, values-led workplace? How can we be a force for good, all through the lens of coffee?
No two days are the same, and that’s what I love. I’m driven by curiosity, collaboration, and a belief that specialty coffee can—and should—have a positive impact on people, communities, and the planet.
Emily, Production & Quality Manager
I’m the Production & Quality Manager at our roastery in Leyton. As well as roasting coffee, I spend my time overseeing our overall coffee production ensuring consistently delicious coffee goes in and out the door.
Demi, Equipment Technician
I'm a Technician for Climpson & Sons, my day to day is normally spent on the road visiting customers for annual services, booked and reactive call outs and inspections. Of course, with this all comes with admin, paperwork and parts orders too..
Jo, Marketing & E-Commerce Manager
I’m the Marketing and E-Commerce manager at Climpson & Sons. I look after our retail customers and the digital marketing side of the business. There is a lot of interaction with people, both indirect through digital marketing and directly through our busy events calendar.
Becky, Marketing Executive
I work part-time as a Marketing Executive, having started my Climpsons career as a bright-eyed barista in our cafe back in 2018. My job involves curating our content - from our newsletters and journal posts to all the stories we share on social media. While I spend less time hands-on with the tools these days, I love getting the chance to share tales from our inspiring producing partners and taste coffees when I can.
The first steps to working in specialty coffee …
All coffee professionals will remember their first role in the industry, and there are countless ways into the wide world of specialty coffee. Whether this is a conscious decision drawn from a love of drinking coffee, like Demi who was “completely besotted by the coffee wave that took the world” or a case of simply being in the right place at the right time, like Emily who says that “coffee was an accident for me.”
Coffee can start as a casual job or a way to pay the bills. But in the right workplace and with the right training, that casual job can turn into something really interesting and rewarding.
Emily reflects on her first steps into specialty:
“I got a job at a local café who were serving coffee from Caravan. I began to show a vague interest in learning to make coffee and it snowballed from there. I took every opportunity to go to coffee training and I loved it. They were so knowledgeable that it just inspired me to learn more.”
Some coffee professionals might side step into the industry from complimentary roles across bars, restaurants and likeminded venues. This can be a way to see behind the scenes of specialty coffee, as well as being drawn to the more attractive daytime shift patterns for coffee people. Becky talks about her first peak of interest in specialty coffee:
“I previously worked in restaurants in front of house and leadership roles. I was interested in making coffee but I didn’t have the opportunity to spend a lot of time getting really good at it. I was sent on a roastery tour with the restaurant I was working at at the time. We tasted the coffee, found out about the process, and I realised how interesting coffee could be. There was a spark in me that lit and I knew, I would like to work in coffee one day.”
Nicole, hailing from the notoriously coffee loving country of New Zealand shares her very first job in coffee:
“My first job at 15 was in a café and deli in New Zealand, where coffee culture is a big part of daily life. I used to love going for coffee with friends—it was more than just a drink; it was a ritual, a way to connect. I loved the sense of community at the café too—getting to know regulars, remembering their orders, making people’s day. Back then, there wasn’t much training (we were told not to touch the grinder!), but I was already drawn to how coffee brings people together.”
Key transferable skills as a barista and the value of mentorship
We all know baristas are pros at slinging shots on the coffee machine and steaming milk to perfection, but what other skills can you learn making coffee? Working as a barista usually means working in a close knit team and communicating clearly and succinctly with your colleagues, all whilst anticipating and supporting the needs of customers. It’s a juggling act of multitasking and an elegant dance when done well. This dance is a skill to carry into so many roles in the wider industry, from account relationships to administrative tasks. If there’s time and resources, it can be a training ground to nerd out about coffee and fine tune tasting skills everyday - incredibly useful for roles in a roastery too.
Nicole breaks down the softer skills to be found working in coffee:
“For me, it was all about soft skills—customer service, creating great experiences, and staying one step ahead. I learned to hustle, be proactive, and think on my feet. I was always drawn to the business side of coffee, and the more technical skills came later.
I stuck with my early roles because I saw the value in consistency, but also the opportunity to keep learning and improving, even in small ways. Building strong relationships with my team and learning from those around me has always been important.
Over time, I realised leadership was something I cared deeply about—not necessarily managing, but contributing to the best possible outcome, learning from mistakes, and approaching things with optimism and collaboration. Whether it was washing dishes or engaging customers, I believed in doing it with intention.
What helped me grow was a mix of having supportive managers and my own drive to keep improving. No one hands you the playbook—you have to seek it out, ask questions, and put in the work.”
The value of mentorship and a wider company culture plays a role here. As an individual, while you may be passionately gathering skills everyday, without a clear pathway for progression or relatable mentors in the roles you’re looking for, it can be easy to feel stuck in the barista space.
Here’s Emily’s experience:
“I’ve been lucky that pretty much everywhere I have worked I’ve had someone to pester with questions and show me things. And hard work has been recognised. Ultimately, I think turning up (on time!) and doing the job in front of you goes a long way in decent companies.” Similarly Demi says that “along my journey I had people that believed in me, that pushed me and motivated me. I made it my personal goal to show that it wasn't for nothing”
If you’re looking to progress in coffee it’s worth considering who your mentors are. Whether this is a formal buddy-system or a more informal relationship based mentor role: Who can you turn to for advice?
How to navigate the challenges of career progression?
Moving into a new role can be ripe for self doubt. It comes with different ways of working, expectations and challenges. Nicole describes “holding back from applying for roles because I didn’t think I was experienced or technical enough. Looking back, I regret that—I’ve learned that technical skills can be taught, and sometimes what people are really looking for is potential, drive, and perspective.”
There will always be moments when you feel like you don’t know enough about coffee, because the scope for knowledge and experience is so vast. This can range from the technical skills of brewing, equipment maintenance and roasting to competition level, to the nuances of sourcing, sustainability and coffee's complicated geographical history as well as practical work in the digital administrative and management space.
Demi joined the company in 2019 as a barista with a clear sense of direction. When applying for her dream job at Climpsons, she knew where she wanted to be, but not necessarily how to get there. Over 3 years later, the leap was taken after a meeting in reference to her very first interview at the company, where she expressed her curiosity for all things tech and equipment. She says:
“This might sound straightforward but the whole journey was filled with self doubt.”
A coffee knowledge gap can feel particularly confronting when bringing your unique skills and experience into the world of specialty coffee. Like Jo, who brought her unique marketing expertise to Climpsons in 2021:
“Coming from a non-specialty coffee background I didn’t know anything about the product. That was a challenge for me because I had to start from scratch and learn everything about the science and the craft. From a marketers perspective, I think knowing the product is very important to be able to communicate to customers. That was the biggest challenge for me.”
Luckily at Climpsons we work with so many who have amazing knowledge and experience. That means we have a wide resource of people to gather information from, both formally through our cupping events and training as well as informally simply through sharing a work environment. Jo also describes finding “the coffee industry is very accessible and very welcoming” highlighting that “there is always a lot to learn and contribute but there’s also a lot of willingness to share.”
Seeking out opportunities
Nicole describes her career as a mix of actively seeking out opportunities and letting things unfold in unexpected ways. When she began in logistics and admin at Climpsons, it was a whole new world—VAT returns, payroll, order management, customer service, dispatch sheets. It was overwhelming but she stuck with it, knowing that if she could push through, she would gain valuable skills and the potential for something very exciting on the other side.
Back then Climpsons was a small team of about 10 people with big potential. Nicole describes how she actively developed her role in the company:
“Working with Danny, I saw opportunities to get more involved—attending coffee festivals, building our presence, and connecting with the wider industry. I took on our Instagram, started a newsletter, and began shaping how we presented Climpsons to the world.
Eventually, I proposed creating our first Business Development role—something that combined marketing, events, and brand positioning. That move gave me a chance to blend creativity with strategy and helped carve out a new space for myself in the company.
Outside of my main role, I also ran the Climpsons coffee cart on Saturdays for a few years. It grounded me in the community and gave me a chance to connect with people in a way that office-based logistics didn’t.
In 2017, I entered Cup Tasters because I wanted to build a technical skill. I practiced a lot, got everything wrong in training, but somehow came second on the day. It didn’t change my career, but it gave me confidence—proof that showing up and giving things a go really matters.
That same mindset carried over to events like the London Coffee Festival, where I met people who inspired me and helped me see how I could be part of something bigger. I wasn’t looking to compete or be a head barista, but I was curious. I asked a lot of questions—about business, about the supply chain—and that curiosity helped me create new opportunities not just for myself, but for Climpsons too. I figured if I could help the business grow, exciting things would follow for me as well.”
It’s this personalised career development pathway that Nicole now facilitates for many others in her role as Managing Director.
Emily describes “quite a natural progression to where I am now from where I started” saying that her focus has always been wanting to learn more about coffee and seeking opportunities in line with this:
“I've always actively sought out opportunities, especially when I've felt ready to progress or have been keen to work for another company. Everywhere I've worked I’ve managed to learn something and progress in different ways - whether big or small. I think, potentially, you can't always wait for things to be handed to you or naturally happen. You shouldn't be worried about stating what you want and working towards it. The places I've worked have definitely helped structure and inform how I think about coffee. Climpsons has helped show me the importance of recognising what's needed to grow coffee and the people behind it, which can be overlooked when we only see the end product.”
For Becky, the enthusiasm came first and the role followed. When working at the Climpsons cafe, she applied for an administrative role at the office and managed to talk herself out of it through the course of the job interview:
“In the job interview we talked about what the role I had applied for would involve, from what I remember, equipment serial numbers and a lot of spreadsheets, and I quickly realised that it wasn’t the right job for me. Nicole suggested I start supporting our social media and events calendar so I began splitting my time between the cafe and our Marketing Department.
The role I originally applied for wasn’t right, but it led to something that much more suited my interests, and the more creative and personable things I was good at too. Over the years, I’ve been able to be part of developing our brand image and voice. There have been moments of trial and error, but overall it’s something I’m very proud of.”
Engaging with the wider coffee community
We often talk about the specialty coffee community - our colleagues, peers and partners who share our passion for ethically produced and purchased coffee. In an industry that was once considered ‘gatekeep-y’ how can engaging with the community support a rewarding career?
A starting point for many is the calendar of coffee festivals and events. Nicole describes the challenges and rewards of navigating the coffee festival space:
“When I went to my first coffee festival, I just wanted to fit in. I wasn’t a barista in the traditional sense—my role was in customer service and logistics at a roastery—so I felt like a bit of an outsider. I was blown away by how technical the industry was and honestly had no idea where I fit in. But what made a huge difference were the people who took the time to talk, share, and help me along my journey. I started to realise it was okay to be different—that I didn’t need to be a technical expert to have a place in coffee. I could shape my own path.
The community taught me so much. I met people I’d catch up with outside of work just to talk shop—big picture stuff about the coffee value chain, sustainability, and where the industry was heading. Those early festivals were such a rich space for learning and connection.
I’ll never forget meeting Marta Dalton from Coffee Bird—she really inspired me. That conversation opened my eyes not only to the origins of coffee, but also to the possibility of using our industry to do good and drive positive change, especially for women in coffee.”
Becky describes the role of Climpsons in house events on building confidence in her role:
“Climpsons has always hosted inspiring cuppings and events, where experts in different corners of our business come forward to share their niche knowledge. We’ve covered everything from the mineral composition of water to the optimum wattage for a mobile coffee set up. I found coming into a barista role, it was always helpful to be at those events. You have different conversations with people you wouldn’t otherwise get to talk to. Every event, I would be there. And that made me better at my job. I learnt more about our coffees, built confidence selling our range to customers and had more knowledge to pass through to other people in the team. In terms of the writing I do now, you get so many ideas just from talking to people. Most of the ideas for our blogs come from conversations around the office or roastery and I’m always poaching facts for content from the team. You can never know it all but you can definitely find someone to ask.”
Specialty coffee in an industry built on people and relationships. From our producers and importers through to our working relationships in our own company. Engaging with this is a great way to continue to build your coffee career.
Advice for your younger self
Oh foresight. What a wonderful thing. For Nicole, it’s all about mindset:
“One of the biggest turning points for me was deciding for myself that coffee was going to be my career. That mindset shift changed everything. I stopped waiting for permission or a playbook and started thinking about the kind of person I wanted to be in the industry.
If you're not getting what you need from your job, stop complaining and start doing. Pitch an idea to your manager, offer to take on a new project—just take initiative. Progression is a two-way street; it’s not on someone else to carve the path for you. You’ve got to put in the work, be proactive, and master whatever’s in front of you—whether that’s dishwashing, improving service speed, or learning how a profit and loss sheet works.
Also, be honest with yourself about what you enjoy and what you don’t. I’ve always gravitated toward the big-picture side of coffee—how it connects people, where it comes from, and what impact we can have as a business. I love cupping and sourcing, but I’ve never been super technical, and that’s okay. You don’t need to be great at everything—you just need to know your strengths and lean into them.
I’d also say: don’t just read and research—get real-life experience. That’s where true learning happens. For me, pushing past those moments of doubt came from showing up, staying curious, and reminding myself that growth often comes from the things you think you can’t do (yet).”
Jo describes her perspective from a non-coffee background
“Don’t hesitate to carve out your unique space. Because I’m not from a coffee background, I was initially very hesitant. I didn’t know if I could do the role because everyone else had more knowledge and confidence than me. I had doubts about whether I was in the right place. But then I started to carve out my own space, in a way that’s still relevant to the wider industry but allows me to utilise all the skills I’ve built. There is a lot of room to grow.”
And the very best piece of advice she gives is to “just go for it!” She says that if you love coffee, but are from a non-coffee background, that love and passion is enough to progress you forward.
A changing relationship with coffee
For Jo, this change has been radical. She is originally from India, where coffee is more of a social tool and not something that’s typically drunk at home (that’s what tea is for!) so working in coffee has made her realise how much science there is behind the cup. Through her time at Climpsons she has learnt to brew coffee at home and to pour barista quality espresso through the Climpsons Complete Coffee Course.
For Nicole, her relationship with coffee has evolved a lot over the years, but one thing has stayed constant - the sense of community it fosters:
“Coming from New Zealand, where coffee culture is ingrained, to moving to London during the rise of the flat white and third-wave coffee was thrilling. It felt like the industry was exploding, and I was excited to be a part of it.”
From an initial high, she went through a rollercoaster of discoveries in coffee:
“At first, my journey followed the Dunning-Kruger effect—I was overconfident in the beginning, thinking I knew more than I did. Then came the “valley of despair,” as I realised how little I actually knew when I arrived in London and saw how deep the industry was. But over time, I found my way, moving into the “slope of enlightenment” as my knowledge grew, and now, I feel like I’m at a place of sustainable, balanced confidence. I appreciate how vast and fascinating the coffee world is, and while there’s still so much to learn, I no longer panic about not knowing everything.”
She describes a deepening of her relationship with coffee over time:
“Today, I have a deeper understanding of where coffee comes from and the people who make it possible. It’s important to me that people recognise the hard work that goes into every cup, from the farm to the roastery. Coffee should be enjoyed for its quality, but also with respect for the people behind it, who genuinely care about what they do.”
Are you interested in a career in coffee? Head to our careers page for current job opportunities. We would love to hear what makes you tick in specialty coffee.
