Unedited stories from people on the frontline of coffee and behind the beans at Hooligan House. Enjoy the inside word.
MY NAME IS ADAM WHITE + I'M A BARISTA TRAINER
Back in 2014 I applied for a Barista role at the brand new Hemel Hempstead Harris + Hoole shop. I already had an interest in coffee but was soon to find out I knew less than I thought! H+H gave me loads of training, and from my start as a Barista I progressed to Pilgrim (a super barista!), and before I knew it, found myself part of the management side of things. From Hemel I went onto manage my own H+H shop in Huntingdon. Whilst managing Huntingdon I helped trial a new in-shop coffee coaching role called Guru, which would pave the way for my current job as Barista Trainer! I train every newbie who joins the business! Teaching them coffee skills, and more about what makes working at H+H great! What’s my favourite bit about the job? Enabling and empowering people’s growth, in both the coffee skills and education I can pass on. If I manage to inspire people to make 'better coffee' and to make said 'better coffee' more accessible, then we're all winners!
MY NAME IS JAMIE BUCKMAN + I'M A SHIFT LEADER
I'm a Shift leader in our Horley branch, and I'm currently training to be a "Coffee Guru". I started as a Barista here after my friend tipped me off that the company was great to work for. Now I'm nearly 3 years in and have learnt more about coffee than you would believe! As our in-store Guru it's my job to make sure that our coffee is the highest quality possible and the training I've been given to make that happen has been both a great time and super interesting. Our customers make the days fly by - I'd make an educated guess that I know 200~ish customers by name, and I love knowing them all so personally. This extends to H+H as a whole too - we have an internal social media, events to raise money for charity and the mother of all birthday parties to celebrate all things H+H and to recognise how far we've come.
MY NAME IS SIMON MARSH + I'M A SHOP MANAGER
I joined H+H in May 2017 as a Barista having come from a background of Architecture and Project Management. I worked my way to Shift Leader then Assistant Manager before passing my Shop Manager Growth Hack and taking up residence as Manager of Fulham Reach in August 2018.
There are many elements that I love about the job, these include;
The interaction with customers, making friends with regulars, growing a community to ensure we grow and flourish and helping them understand more about coffee.
Working with coffee, learning more every day and trying to improve on all aspects such as dialling-in (to make sure the coffee tastes its best all day), latte art, home brew, etc.
Keeping fit as it is an active job that helps you get those extra steps in each shift
The great people that work for H+H who are passionate and inspirational
MY NAME IS TIA BANYA + I'M A BARISTA PILGRIM
As a Barista Pilgrim my role is to deliver the best specialty coffee I can. I also provide support for new Baristas! On a day to day basis I focus on interacting with customers and making sure the experience at Harris and Hoole is the best! As the latte art champion of H+H two years running I try to impress customers with my latte art skills. I also like to help the Baristas in shop develop and refine their skills wherever they feel it is needed. I love the experience I can create not only for customers but new Baristas as well. Being able to help baristas on their journey through Harris and Hoole whilst watching them grow is very rewarding.
MY NAME IS STACEY CANNING + I'M A COFFEE CHAMPION
My role at H+H is Coffee Champion. The core of my role is to ensure that the coffee quality and standards in our shops is top notch! To do that I train our baristas in shop to keep their skills to a really high quality and ensure they are forever growing their coffee skills and credentials within the business as well as the wider Coffee industry. My role is forever growing and expanding with everything from Technical Maintenance (don’t be surprised if you find me with a wrench or screwdriver in my hand!) to developing new and interesting ways of keeping the Coffee culture vibrant and exciting within H+H.
MY NAME IS SAFA ADEN + I'M AN AREA OPERATIONS MANAGER
I was headhunted into the business. I ran a couple of different but very busy shops. I was then promoted to open our shops and work with the building & interior design teams to make sure that everything was up to standards and looking fab before we opened. On this journey I opened 29 shops on the H+H estate and also refurbished 4. In November 2016 I was promoted to become the area manager of the North region. I’ve now been H+H for over 6 years and have really seen the teams grow and learn along the way. My favourite thing about my job are the people, because they’re all awesome.
If this has whet your appetite to join our team, take a look here at The Journey to Joining
And if you've got any more questions about life at Harris + Hoole then please drop us an email or visit our Facebook page at Harris + Hoole Careers.
