The Daily Grind: What a Year in Coffee Shops Taught me About Developing Professional Skills

A little over two years ago, I became rather familiar with coffee shops. With a career transition they became an indelible part of my search. When I was growing up in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, I was taught how much business was conducted on the golf course. As such, I was signed up for golf courses. Now in my town of Portland, Oregon, the unspoken center of business and networking is the coffee shop. Jokingly known as a city of coffee snobs, we take coffee seriously, as both a conversation topic (“What’s your favorite shop,” “How do you like your coffee?”) and as the setting for social interactions, especially first meetings. The coffee shop became a second home. A number of my informational interviews were held there and I also used it as a place to get away from the house to increase my focus, whether it was in writing applications or in enriching myself via LinkedIn or Medium. I was able to complete more tasks, as I had fewer distractions. So here is what I learned:

I’m Not Alone in Working to Meet Goals

When I was filling out applications, I felt an incredible peace of mind in seeing others poring over their laptops, writing that paper, conducting research, or having an in-depth conversation, whether social or professional. While the shops are generally a single physical space, every person is in their own fascinating little world. I recognized a sense of solidarity, that we are all seeking and struggling, working to get somewhere and that we all chose this particular place for some solitude or catharsis, a reprieve from the craziness of home life, a better place to accomplish tasks, or a simple means to make a connection. This serves as both confirmation and affirmation that we’re all trying to make it in the world. In a more general sense, it also serves as a great equalizer. People from all walks of life congregate there. I wouldn’t call it a total microcosm of the city, but it was a fairly solid slice of this community.

Developing Nuanced Tastes

With so many coffee shops here to patronize, I have become discerning in the best place to meet individuals. When I was at the height of informational interviews, it was an interesting negotiation, as some of my connections were from different parts of the metro area. Oftentimes, the choice of shop would be a suggestion from my contact, whose knowledge of coffee shops or the area was generally sound. When I was asked to name the location, I would conduct some cursory research via Google Reviews or Yelp and rarely did they disappoint. However, just because they were well-reviewed did not always mean they fit my given needs. One of my favorite shops is great for networking, but as it evokes a family-friendly atmosphere the greater noise led to distraction when it came to applications. What can I say, headphones can only do so much…

In addition, as I got a sense of the coffee shop’s atmosphere, it also helped me discern the potential for a sustainable connection. For example, when invited to a major coffee chain in a gas station, I had a gut feeling that the connection would not be fruitful, and indeed that was the case. Nonetheless, I was still open to possible opportunities and my judgment was not always correct. Sometimes the atmosphere of a major chain was enough to ensure that the goals would be met and therefore perfectly acceptable.

Now my expertise on area coffee shops is pretty solid. A few months back, a friend in graduate school asked me for coffee shop recommendations that would be good for study groups and within a general neighborhood. Within ten minutes, I had thought of five.

Coffee Shop-ing: An Ethic

This may be the emotionally hardest but also the important lesson learned. As I hinted at earlier, in my career transition, my weekly schedule went from nearly filled to nearly blank. Staring at my calendar, this was a little intimidating. Going to coffee shops served as an easy means to maintain a work ethic. Attempting to set up at least a few informational interviews a week was that much more validating in the effort to find new gainful employment.

There have been some fun byproducts of being in coffee shops, honing not the expected skills of research, networking and then developing more nuanced tastes, but also refining the cold approach. At one shop, I lauded how much I liked the place to the manager and was able to receive a gift card for one of my philanthropic endeavors. To this day, I always bring my business cards to the coffee shop, because who knows what kind of professional relationships can arise?

And indeed, the original decision to blog came about a means to maintain tasks and a work ethic, to have a tangible example of how I was keeping myself sustained while I was job searching. However, I loved this means of expression and have strived to keep it as part of my work ethic. While coffee shops are not as critical as they were a few years back, I still utilize them often. For example, a good chunk of this piece was written in a coffee shop…