Interview with Sol, a hospo pro turned coffee machine technician

Can you tell me a bit about your hospitality journey leading you up to where you are today?

Yeah, sure. So, I’ve always worked in hospitality ever since I got my first job at the age of 15, just working in cafes and bakeries. It's a pretty hard industry to work in, especially for employers that hire 15 year old’s, especially in the year 2000. I was living in a share house, going to uni, paying rent, going steady, especially while I was travelling. So that pretty much kept me in the industry for like, 12 years. I have always loved the flexibility of the work and the accessibility of work when I travel to a new city, a new state or wherever.

Remind me how long were you working in Collaborate before you moved into Brewtech?

I would have been roughly 12 months I'd say.

Did you always have the intention of moving across to Brewtech?

Yeah, so I applied to work at Brewtech at the start of 2020, and it became impossible because of the pandemic. They didn't have the resources to train new staff so they had to give to someone with more experience, because I was obviously coming in without experience in tech work. Partway through those two years of lockdown, I got the offer to be the head barista at Colab. I was one step closer to working at Brewtech.

And what skills do you think have been most transferable from being a barista to being a technician?

Customer service is an obvious one. Hospitality is about delivering and experience and about customer satisfaction. It doesn't matter if you make the best coffee in the world or the best breakfast in the world or in the shortest time. If at the end of it all, the customer is happy, then you've done a good job. I feel like almost every step along the way is flexible if the result is customer satisfaction. A lot of the work that we do, even though were tech support, is customer facing. We go to someone’s business, and they are relying on their equipment to function. We talk to them face to face and the way that we carry ourselves and educate them on their equipment and equipment maintenance directly affects their customer satisfaction. We've probably all dealt with a trades person that comes and does a job, but they're not very communicative or they're rude. They may have repaired your equipment, but you don't really know what's happened because they’ve left without saying anything. And then you just get a bill. It can be confusing and unsatisfying. But at Brewtech, we’ve always been about people, and customer satisfaction is really important. I mean, the reason we're having this interview is because myself, like a lot of us here are hospitality alumni. I think that informs the company culture overall. Everyone's trying to make sure that we don't just do a good service, but that we’re helpful, attentive and responsive to cafe owners that are our customers.

I hadn't really thought about like that. I think you phrased it really well.

Thanks! A lot of times, the problem in the cafe isn't to do with the equipment, it’s user error. If they knew why they had to clean more regularly, or they knew how to make an adjustment correctly without mis-calibrating, then they would know how to identify a fault in the equipment. A big part of our work is customer interaction and education.

If there were a tertiary or TAFE course to learn how to become a coffee machine technician, would you have taken it? Back in your pre-tech days?

Yeah, I think a would have. Hospitality is not a particularly secure industry, especially if you're working as a casual. There are also limited options for career advancement. You can go into management or start your own business, and those are the big promotions in hospitality. They're certainly not for everyone. And so, as people look for ways to move forward, it can often take them away from the industry. But luckily for me, I knew that I had a lot of valuable skills that were anchored in hospitality, and if I just changed career path completely, that would be a lot of wasted experience. I wanted to stay hospital adjacent so I think I would have found my way here, at some point. Brewtech was particularly appealing because they had such a good reputation. It doesn't take long working in the Melbourne cafe scene to hear good things about them.

What have been the biggest lessons that you've learned, either the easy way or the hard way?

Don't over tighten anything! That's one you only really learn that the hard way. People will tell you, but you don't know how tight is too tight until you snap something off in the hole.

A mistake only made once I imagine! So, you've recently started heading up the Mahlkonig department. What does that mean to you, and what does your day to day look like?

So, we have a dedicated Mahlkonig department at Brewtech, because they have some pretty exciting products that have recently been released. In the last few years, Mahlkonig have released a couple of new grinders that are pretty groundbreaking. Their accuracy and consistency is industry leading, and they've been very successful with those products. We've been lucky enough to work closely with Mahlkonig to stock and distribute those products across Australia, and the department has grown a lot. It accounts for a significant portion of the trade that Brewtech does, and we need someone to keep on top of all that, and that person became me. My role is super education focused. I’d say that on average, one in ten of the jobs that I do on the mechanic side of things is actually due to a broken grinder. Nine times out of ten, it's an educational phone call to a user, rather than a hands-on job. I also love the newfound organisational aspects of my job, now that we've upgraded our workshops. There is now a dedicated Mahlkonig, and organising parts supply and getting the framework together has been quite a bit of work.

Would you say that you’re a naturally organized person?

Yeah internally, just don't look in my van.

Haha, and what would you say is next for you within your department?

I definitely see us working towards consolidating our clinics stuff at present. It's not done by any stretch. Brewtech is closely partnered with La Marzocco, and we're in the process of working with them to organise our spare part stock management. We're using the same system to manage the Malkonig spare parts as well, which will be much more efficient. There's still a lot to do and we’re not going to slow down anytime soon. A lot of these grinders have been in cafes for a year to two years now. So, we're starting to get more wear and tear jobs, where things have been used pretty heavily and thus parts need replacing. Because of this, I'm sure at some point we'll need a second Mahlkonig person. That's fast becoming the natural projection at Brewtech, as the company is growing so rapidly. So, I'm looking forward to seeing what the Mahlkonig department looks like when it's fully up and running, and as it expands.

Me too! I have one last question. What is your attitude towards making coffee nowadays now that you’ve moved into tech and have the lovely folks in Colab making coffee for you?

It is a lot easier to enjoy coffee now that it's not my job to make it. Contrary to when I was a barista, I now drink coffee and I don't see how it's made, I don't know where it's from, I don't know what the roast profile is, I don't know what the beans look like and I just get to enjoy it for what it is. It has become much more of a sensory experience, rather than work. So, I like coffee better now.

Thanks for your time today.

Oh, no worries!