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Starbucks China partner recruitment criteria: coffee lovers are the most popular

Published: 2026-02-23 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/02/23, Starbucks refers to employees as partners, and employee recruitment is called partner recruitment. There are no professional, gender, age restrictions, as long as they are willing to join the cause, people who are passionate about coffee are the most popular partners. During the interview, Zhao Wei will ask job seekers to describe themselves as customers who have experienced the worst service experience, and to be considerate of others and share what they would do if they were a clerk.

Starbucks refers to employees as partners, and employee recruitment is called partner recruitment. There are no professional, gender, age restrictions, as long as they are willing to join the cause, people who are passionate about coffee are the most popular partners. During the interview, Zhao Wei will ask job seekers to describe their worst service experience as a customer and share what they would do if they were a clerk for others.

Starbucks employees are not only coffee experts, but also good storytellers. Yesterday, Zhao Wei, head of Starbucks China partner recruitment, was interviewed by a reporter from West China Metropolis Daily on Starbucks' concept of employment. Zhao Wei seldom gives a direct answer. He tells a lot of stories about every question. He says it is a Starbucks tradition to use stories to infect people around him. "everyone can become a barista, every partner has the opportunity to manage a coffee shop, and every partner can pursue their dreams at Starbucks."

Starbucks refers to its employees as partners and recruits them without professional, gender or age restrictions.

Zhao Wei, head of recruitment for Starbucks China partner.

Talent selection criteria: coffee lovers are the most popular

Starbucks refers to employees as partners, and employee recruitment is described as partner recruitment. Everyone has the opportunity to become a barista, or even a more advanced master of coffee. " Zhao Wei told reporters that Starbucks has no professional, gender and age restrictions on store partners, and is willing to join the cause and recognize jobs in the catering and retail industry. People who are passionate about coffee are the most popular partners.

At Starbucks, baristas in stores have to face the test of working shifts and repetition, which is completely different from the perfect career that many Starbucks fans dream of, but Starbucks is definitely a paradise for coffee idealists. "the one in the green apron is the star barista, and the one in the black apron is the coffee master." Zhao Wei was impressed by a coffee master. During a meeting, the coffee master stumbled into the conference room, smelled coffee at the door and blurted out that it was Colombian coffee.

"Starbucks provides every entry partner with the opportunity to get in touch with the mysterious items of coffee, to taste the subtle differences between different coffees, and even to feel the unique climate or history and culture of different coffee producing areas."

Interview inspection: first "paint a portrait" and then let you think of others

Over the next five years, Starbucks hopes to expand the number of stores in China from the current less than 1000 to more, with tens of thousands of partners. "We will draw a portrait of our ideal partner and follow the clues to find a suitable partner." Zhao Wei's so-called "portrait painting" actually refers to giving every job seeker a professional test to generate a report that includes personality characteristics, ability and quality, and development expectations.

"I will ask job seekers to describe themselves as customers who have experienced the worst service experience." Zhao Wei hopes that job seekers will be able to express their feelings at the time and be able to think of others and share what they would do if they were a store clerk. Zhao Wei also imagines a very difficult customer for job seekers. "from their coping attitude, we can capture whether he is suitable to be a partner of Starbucks."

Warm, cozy and relaxed, every Starbucks store shows the same style, but Starbucks partners are not the same. Zhao Wei told reporters that Starbucks can provide jobs for special partners with hearing and intellectual disabilities, as well as enable post-90s who love to play games and do not like to talk to the people around them, and part-time college students can also work as basic store management jobs.

Talent structure: 90% of the store partners are college students.

College students are a vital part of Starbucks store partners. More than 90% of store partners are college students, including fresh graduates and those who have not yet graduated part-time. Zhao Wei told reporters that Starbucks hopes to start on campus and let students who look like a blank sheet of paper grow into store managers, regional managers, directors of operations and even higher-level managers.

Most of the college students who are about to leave campus are post-90s. Starbucks can see their advantages, like to communicate more directly and have fun with new things; at the same time, they also have the problem of lack of professional persistence. "leadership courage, goal achievement, sustainable development, customer first and close cooperation are the five major recruitment criteria for Starbucks around the world." Zhao Wei said that Starbucks has strict standards for partner recruitment and will not vary from person to person.

Zhao Wei also told reporters that in the recruitment of store partners, work experience will add a lot of points. Starbucks recruitment team is not all professional background, but also responsible for recruiting partners are experienced employees in stores.

(responsible Editor: Leo)