The interviewer asked me what kind of shifts I liked, busy vs not busy, etc. Standard stuff. She made it clear that she wants happy attitudes in the early morning. Which makes sense on one level, but the fact that she mentioned that moaning about the early hour is 'not acceptable' was... interesting. (Why has it been enough of an issue to mention it at an interview? Who does she put on shift?) Of note, I said I was an actor and looking for a certain degree of flexibility. The interviewer then asked me: "Well, one of my staff quit because he got a stand-in gig in (big franchise). What if you book a job like that? Are you going to quit on me?" (I mean, yeah--how long does one stay at a Starbucks?) I answered as diplomatically as I could--I said I didn't think I was at that level yet and that it hadn't been a problem before. Very confrontational energy. One thing that stood out was the free drink thing--they offer you a free drink at the end of the interview. I said a grande something-or-other, and she said "Are you sure?" "Yeah, I'm good." "Come on, it's free!" "Well, sure. Thank you, that's very kind!" And of course, looking back, I know now that I walked into a trap of some kind. It was a covert behavioural 'question', but I'm not sure what information that gave her about what kind of a person I am. About a decade later (although not at Starbucks), I have managed, trained, and scheduled people, and I can say that the interview was probably a good indicator for what the work environment would have been like.

Basically a short chat about my availability, my interest in the job, why I want to work there, how familiar I am with coffee and what my past experiences in hospitality were.