Philz Coffee hires baristas for genuine hospitality and care, not experience. The company's top baristas often had no prior coffee experience because the essential qualities of connection and personal values can't be taught, only found.
We knew how important people were to the Philz experience because every cup was handmade, prone to a lot of error without care, and it was all about hospitality, connection. And in many ways, you can't teach someone to have that level of presence, care. You can't teach that. You can't teach the care part. So we knew from the very beginning that we needed to hire people that had a set of values that aligned with ours, and it was less about their resume and their experience, particularly if you're a barista. I don't care a ton about where you worked before. Some of our best baristas were never baristas prior.
