Q&A: What is the best way to get into the coffee industry?

Question by Chris M: What is the best way to get into the coffee industry?
I want to get into the coffee industry such as a roaster. Is the best bet to just get in with a company and hope to rise from within, or is there specific education that can help you land a job in the production side of coffee?

Best answer:

Answer by taxpayer
What experience and training do you have?

The coffee ‘industry’ goes from planting coffee trees in Brazil to sweeping up the local Starbucks at night. If you want to be a ‘roaster’ you need to contact the companies that do roasting in your area and talk to them.

I’m pretty sure that if you work for a mass production plant you’d start in the warehouse end of the business [loading and unloading trucks] or other manual labor position.

You could work in the quality control end of the business. In which case a college or technical school background would be needed.

What do you think? Answer below!