Why Starbucks' recruiting director resigned and joined Google

Jason Warner, most recently the director of North America Recruiting at Starbucks, is asked why he left the coffee giant. His response: "Starbucks is an amazing company, led by amazing leaders, with an amazing culture and huge business growth plans ahead. I've been asked this question by a lot of people, and my response is the same: I really don't think of it as that I left Starbucks per se, but that I was offered a world-class opportunity at another great company, which will allow me to learn a whole different set of lessons and skills in a completely different environment. This is a great move for my career." (Inside Recruiting)

Comments

[JavaJen]

Wow. Amazing.

[Blue Collar]

Speaking of corporate-speak (Starbuckian?)...I think he has Matt Murray beat.

[Bariesta]

Jesus you smucks don't give anyone a break do you? What this guy is doing is trying not to burn any bridges. This is a smart move on his part. By saying some great things about Starbucks and how he left to broaden his horizons (I.E. not smearing himself or his former company) he left on a positive note that his new company will see and respect him for.

[HR]

Wow, what a shock. He wants to leave a company that hires mainly non-degree holding order takers for a company that hires a higher percentage of degree holding engineers and IT specialists.

[imabarista]

There are web sites dedicated to the absolutely deplorable
means and methods of HR at Google.

They got smart and hired somebody who does it right.

Now, will they change their culture and listen to him?

[iheartstarbuckslattes]

I wouldn't say that the HR is deplorable at Google- they just have a different hiring model. And I don't think they will change it very soon - it's very typical for hi-tech- the microsoft model.

I think this move is bizarre- the hiring system for Starbucks is completely different then the hiring system for Google- everything from the type of people, level of skills, recruitment process - is different.

[anss]

Different systems blah blah blah. At the core of his job, it's the same. Finding the best talent and selling them on the company.

[49peratioshift]

Well maybe it's the benefits package. If it's similar to starbucks... he could be making ALLOT more on stock options alone.

Working for 3 years at Google might translate into making the same amount of $ while working for Starbucks at 10 years.

Maybe or maybe not. all in all... I wish him the best of luck.

[Homebarista]

I used to only read this site...now I can't seem to resist commenting! I've just now returned from the "new" Sbux in Syracuse, NY, with an excellent example of recent Sbux recruitment/training. Nice people, but when I questioned them about their (nameless) expresso machine the answer I got was: "Super Automatic? What's that? I don't know what it's called." This guy just used "it" to make my coffee...

Expresso... hahahaha....don't be critiquing their lack of knowledge of the machine if you don't even know the beverage.

[Homebarista]

Point well taken 'O nameless one, mea culpa; espresso

[patrick barnett]

Best of luck to Jason Warner. Making the transition from Starbucks cutlure to that of a forward thinking and highly skilled technical culture would not be difficult. If you examine the empirical points within both cultures you will find there are MANY similiarities. Having had the experience of working for Starbucks and a world class defense contractor, I find there are a number of skills that are quite useful to me learned during my tenure with Starbucks. Some of the leadership skills that I use in my job today I learned from training provided to me from Starbucks. And its noticable by others. Often times I get questions from others in management asking about these skills. I am happy to report that I credit these to Starbucks. I usually life and then ask them what their Star Skills are. I laugh...they look bewildered. Having left Starbucks myself, I can only report good things in all my experiences there. Congratulations to Mr. Warner. Have fun at the Googleplex!

"amazing"
"amazing"
"amazing"
i am soooo tired of this overused adjective!!! it's been killed and used so much ...
please...he and anyone one of the thousands of twenty something paris hilton preening wanna be's who say this...it's pretty insincere...'"amazing" double speak

[Coffee Maker]

The responses to this very smal byte of news proves once and for all that the internet does hold the sum of all human knowledge and most of it is complete crap.

Many Starbucks partners and haters seem to have extremely small world views, and probably even less of a life.

[NJ Barista]

**Wow, what a shock. He wants to leave a company that hires mainly non-degree holding order takers for a company that hires a higher percentage of degree holding engineers and IT specialists.**

Actually at my store, 16 people are employed.. all but 7 of whom have at least their B.A.

4 of those who don't are still in high school, and two of the employees with their B.A.s have masters degrees.

I'm assuming you must work a non retail oriented career and have your doctorate?

Starbucks is known as having one of the most over educated employee bases for a retail establishment. Do some research .

Do any of you actually think that this guy hires Baristas?? Come on! This guy hires people who hires recruitment management members that hire and recruit top level executives... who create systems so that store managers have tools that they need to recruit baristas.

[anss]

[quote]
"amazing"
"amazing"
"amazing"
i am soooo tired of this overused adjective!!! it's been killed and used so much ...
please...he and anyone one of the thousands of twenty something paris hilton preening wanna be's who say this...it's pretty insincere...'"amazing" double speak
[/quote]

I agree, and can we also PLEASE make Gourmet mean something again, and not apply it to $3 sandwiches and such? Amazing, gourmet, fabulous, and yummy all need to go away, or at least be used in a fashion that they mean something. I'm with you!

[HR]

Coffee Maker. Those are impressive stats. A little more than just 50% of the staff at your store have their degrees. 9 degrees to 7 without degrees. It must be overwhelming. In a non retail job, you will find that the average office or employer has 80 - 90 % of the staff with degrees. In the end, no matter how cool you try to make your job, it is just a retail job to serve those of us who want our coffee made by someone else instead of taking the time to do it ourselves in the morning.

[CuteBarista!]

HR...you're mean.

so now i'm curious...what is Google's HR model? anyone know?

personally, i'd rather work for Google than Starbucks any day. can't blame the guy.

[iheartstarbuckslattes]

I'm not an expert on the google hiring process- but this is what i do know about it and perhaps someone else on the forum will chime in:

hiring for smarts- not just skills: google has used such tactics as sponsoring code-writing contests at univerisities or posting an equation on a freeway billboard and asking people who can solve it to call in the answer. They also pulled a publicity stunt last year by publishing a booklet of 21 questions in a tech magazine, and stated that those people who sent in answers and scored well would get interviews. I think one of the q's was "what is the most beautiful equation" - or something like that.

hiring by consensus: candidates are evaluated by a group not consisting of the hiring manager- candidates submit examples of projects they have worked on and are evaluated openly by the group. and they are also pretty big on brainteasers in the interviewing (in addition to code writing)- q's like- "how many gas stations are in california"

Right now Google is going through a hiring crunch- they are hiring something like 10-15 people a day- and considering they only have a couple of office locations that's a lot. but they have over 1000 positions open right now- so I've heard that they are lowering their standards. but I hang out with a few microsofties- so maybe that's just a mean rumor :)

[Golden Rule]

Jason "HR" you sound like a nice guy. Does the world treat you that bad that you feel justified to lash out at others ? I think everyone should email him their advice on how to become a better person. Click on his name and his email pops up. Good luck at UCF. If that's where you go to school.

[Boston Starbucks Rebel]

Since I live in Boston the majority of the people here are in college and the ones who are not in college just graduated from college and are looking for a REAL job. Therefore, the majority of the Starbucks partners who are hourly are determined to be the most intelligent because we attend some of the most selective universities in the country such as Harvard, Tufts, Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, Berklee, New England Conservatory, Suffolk, Simmons and the list goes on for here in Boston. Ironically, alot of the salaried managers do not have college degrees and were unable to finish college. I find it very disturbing because obviously the HR department was scraping the bottom of the barrel to find these managers. I find it very demeaning when people who do not have college degrees and some not even a high school diploma try to tell us people what to do.

[barockstar]

you aren't serious boston are you?

if someone is fully capable of managing, what does it matter if they have a degree or not? what if someone opted to stay with starbucks for a career instead of going to college? should they have your scorn?

i won't go into the quantity of super intelligent people who did not get formal education, but there are skills you can't get from university, that are needed in the world of management.

did you watch 'the apprentice' where they had book smarts v. street smarts?
(i didn't, but tuned into an episode)..the total monetary worth of the non-educated was almost double that of the bookies.

college teach you elitism (such as your attitude).
and sometimes life is the best educator.

[HopkinsBella]

BOSTONSTARBUCKSREBEL, completely understood regarding store managers at Starbucks, and the frustration of having worked on a degree + obtained that degree while working as a barista, for a manager without a degree. The seeming futility is frustrating. But it also speaks to the, um, "quality" of Starbucks' overall hiring standards/procedures when incompetent managers seem so rampant in certain districts. No offense, but if I had been a business major in my undergrad, I never would consider Starbucks as a starting place in a management career, for a variety of reasons.

On the other hand, I know a few people who are arguments *against* higher education in the workforce: a couple I know of have 5 degrees and are utterly worthless in their fields, generating negative productivity on all fronts. I am utterly mystified as to how they were hired--their previous job references couldn't have been good, based on current job performance. Take it from someone else in the HR field (and who made it through undergrad and grad school): degrees (even from Ivy Leagues) don't guarantee competence, intelligence, or ability to actually work/function in the real world.

Damn, I got off topic.

Hope Jason has a good future at Google, and that Sbux hiring improves. I've seen really good, and I've seen bad. I think Starbucks has the potential to do a lot better, in this regard.

[anss]

Boston,

Maybe you shouldn't have majored in "wymins studies" or some other useless field. Just a thought.

[June]

Hopkinsbella, you are so correct on many aspects about STBX hiring of managers. The major problem I find is the issue that they are not really full time managers. Their time alloted for managing is a small percentage of their work week. Secondly, pay for managers at STBX is low by industry standards, bonuses skimpy.
Having said that it is a great place to train for a retail career somewhere else.

[Howie S]

Have you compared the SBUX stock to GOOG?
GOOG wins hands down.

[NJ Barista]

ANSS maybe you should apprecitate that got him a BA..You should support other partners im bettering themselves.. we are a family.

[Anon for this one]

I'm a former *$ partner who is interviewing at Google next week. It does happen.

[Terri Taylor]

I am a professor at a college in Florida and I am here to say that getting a college degree assures you of nothing anymore as standards are so low. I have had plenty of students come to my college from all over the country and have seen little hope that it is just a Florida problem. My husband founded a 300 million company in the energy business and needs technical skills and engineers and cannot find the work ethic and skill sets in our country so international students look great and seem hungry to learn and work hard... Lack of skill sets, writing, technical are hurting our country!!!