Week Four

Task Five - My Experiences In My Service Learning Placement



My service learning placement is at Jittery Joe's, which is a coffee shop. My position in the shop is a barista. While working there I have learned how to run it and assist the customers mostly by visual learning. I learned best by watching employees make drinks and use the cash register. When I was stumped on how to make a drink by myself, I referred to the drink instruction chart that was posted inside the shop. The chart helped me the most because it broke down the information in a simple way that I could remember.

My second best way of learning at Jittery Joe's was through some trial and error. When I made drinks, I would find myself monitoring myself step by step to keep myself from rushing and messing up. As I was monitoring myself I would see how the resulting product would turn out and later see if I could do something different to make the process easier and better. The important thing is the satisfaction of the customer. Therefore, when changing my steps in the drink making process, I would observe the satisfaction of the customer and judge my decisions based upon their reactions. If they seem impatient, I will probably not use the same process. If they say something like, "Wow! That was fast! The coffee tastes really good!" I know I was time conscious, but careful, and delivered a good product in a timely manner.


My most positive experience so far while working at Jittery Joe's has been getting used to handling equipment, learning the drink menu and prices, and having satisfied customers. I look forward to making more customers happy in the future and making my job run more and more smoothly. The people in the store have been very helpful in teaching me the things necessary to do my job well by allowing me to watch them while working.