Starbucks Assessment Tests

Careers at Starbucks

Starbucks offers a range of career opportunities, such as a retail role at one of its coffee shops, or a customer help role in a support centre.

Roles in retail include barista, shift supervisor, assistant store manager and store manager. For all these positions, Starbucks provides development through its training programmes – which are delivered in stores – and provide employees with an opportunity to work and gain valuable skills at the same time.

Starbucks has a range of positions at its support centres in areas like accounting, legal, and design.

Starbucks also offers apprenticeships, spanning from level 2 apprenticeships up to higher & degree-level apprenticeships at levels 4–6. These provide an opportunity to progress through the company while gaining experience and qualifications.

Starbucks prides itself on its company culture, which values equality and diversity across its partners, customers, suppliers, and communities. Starbucks also offers great benefits, such as life assurance and the option to buy shares in the company, making it a great place to start a career.

The Starbucks application process typically begins with a review of its careers page, to see what positions are available in your local area. Once you have decided on a vacancy, you will need to submit an online application form.

It is advisable to apply to positions at other locations, to increase the likelihood of moving onto the next stage of the application process.

If your application is successful, the next stage is a telephone interview with a member of the human resources department. After this, you will complete the online Starbucks Virtual Job Tryout.

Successful candidates will then move onto the final stage, which is a face-to-face interview with a store manager.

Starbucks prides itself on a hiring process that is “fun” and “relaxed”, which is reflective of their company culture, and ensures it selects candidates who will fit in.

Please note, this application process is for a typical retail position, and positions at Starbucks support centres may vary.

Starbucks online application form

The online application starts with your resume, which you should ensure is up-to-date and provides as much relevant information as possible. It’s a good idea to review the job description and tailor your resume to the position, demonstrating how your skills and experience match the requirements of the role.

If you do not upload a resume, you can enter all your information manually.

After this, you will need to provide some personal information and state your availability to work. You will also have the option to upload a cover letter, which you can use as a personal introduction.

To finish off the application form, there are some motivational questions such as “Why do you want to work at Starbucks?”. This is your first opportunity to demonstrate why you are a good fit for the role, so take some time to craft a considered response.

A store manager will review your application if they are actively recruiting. Your application may also be viewed by other managers in your area, even if you did not directly apply to that store.

If you are unsuccessful, you will be contacted by email or telephone, and you can apply to another role if you wish.

Starbucks telephone interview

If your online application is successful, you will be invited to a telephone interview, which is typically with a member of the human resources department. The interview will usually last around 30 minutes.

The telephone interview is really an opportunity for Starbucks to get to know more about you, and will likely involve basic personality and motivational questions.

On Starbucks’ careers website it states: “Be yourself. We want to get to know you”. As such, interviews at Starbucks are usually kept light and conversational.

Personality is particularly important for customer-facing roles, so use this as an opportunity to let your personality shine, and show why you’d be a great candidate for the position.

Starbucks Virtual Job Tryout

If you are successful at the telephone interview stage, you will be invited to take the Starbucks Virtual Job Tryout.

This assessment consists of mainly situational judgement questions, with some personality assessments as well. You will take this assessment if you are applying for a barista, shift supervisor or store manager position.

The assessment is meant to simulate the scenarios and problems you could face as a barista or manager. You will be asked questions regarding these scenarios and will have to select the best course of action.

It is taken online and assesses your competence and decision making when presented with certain employee and customer situations. Starbucks uses this to screen candidates by seeing if they possess the necessary skills for the role, and to give them a sense of how well they might perform on the job.

This is also an opportunity for you to get a taste of what it will be like to work in the role you are applying for.

The assessment can be tough, as there may appear to be more than one ‘obvious’ choice. The best way to prepare is to become familiar with the Starbucks company values beforehand and try to select the response that you think best fits the work culture of the company.

Face-to-face interviews

The final stage of the recruitment process is a face-to-face interview with the store manager. This will typically last between 15 minutes and an hour. If you are applying for a managerial position, you can expect to have multiple face-to-face interviews.

This interview will involve competency-based questions, but will remain relatively relaxed and conversational. Examples of competency-based questions:

• “How would you handle a rude customer?”
• “If we ran out of a product or ingredient, how would you explain the situation to the customer? “
• “Tell me about a time you made a mistake, and how did you fix it?”

The interviewer will want you to give specific anecdotes when answering these questions, so take some time to think about examples from your past experiences.

Make sure to also do some research on Starbucks and the role, and think of some questions to ask the store manager, as this shows you have interest in the position and are a keen candidate.