Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

"Not 'Just' A Barista": The Story Of Portland's College-Educated Baristas, Ned William Tilbrook

Dissertations and Theses

This paper examines graduate jobs/skills mismatch in craft occupations, through semi-structured interviews with college-educated baristas working in local and craft coffee shops in Portland, Oregon. This paper asks why college educated people work in such a role as it represents an interesting example of job/skills mismatch. Findings suggest that some see it as a good stop-gap on the way to something else, while others hope to use the skills they learned in studying for their degree to forge a career in the coffee industry. A desire to use these degree-relevant skills is prevalent throughout the sample, however many are still …