Since early 2013 we’ve operated the Sprudge.com/Jobs hiring site, an exclusive “help wanted” imprint of Sprudge Omnimedia with postings reserved to our trusted ad partners. But today we’re brining you a new job so juicy, so epic, that we just had to feature it on the main page. It could be the job of a lifetime – and it’s guaranteed to take you all around the world.
Brant Curtis is looking to get off the road. For the last several years, his job has been to represent the Wilbur Curtis Company at specialty coffee events around the planet. The shared last name between man and company is no accident: Wilbur Curtis Co. was founded in 1941 by Brant’s great grandfather, the original Wilbur Curtis, and Brant is today the company’s fourth generation of family ownership. But with a second child on the way, an impending load of MBA coursework to attend to, and a world of international strategy to engage, he’s stepping back into a bigger picture role. The result is one truly remarkable job opportunity: Wilbur Curtis Co. is now hiring for a Coffee Culture Manager, a very special someone to represent the brand globally.
The world’s oldest coffee brewer manufacturer for drip coffee is also the second largest commercial brewer manufacturer in the world, and yet, Wilbur Curtis Co. has pursued a dogged path of engagement with the specialty coffee community. Over the last few years, Brant Curtis has largely been the point person for these efforts, personally brewing cups of coffees at countless of specialty coffee events and living his life in concert with global coffee’s esoteric events cycle. This is who they’re hiring for now: someone for whom the idea of traveling internationally for coffee roughly 2 weeks a month sounds like a dream come true.
We chatted with Brant a bit more on the details – there’s contact information for resumes below.
Brant Curtis, where does the whole idea behind this job search come from?
As you know, because we’ve attended many of the same events together, I’ve been traveling heavily for years. I travel to a ton of different events all throughout the year, all for specialty coffee, but I also have a full-time job here at the Wilbur Curtis Co. HQ in Los Angeles. And that means that I can’t get to all the things that I should in speciality coffee – meaning visiting with customers, but also all the rest of the bigger picture stuff I want to be able to concentrate on back in Los Angeles. The idea of hiring someone is really meant to help me do my job better, and make it so, eventually, I won’t have to be on the road all the time.
Give us some guidance on what kind of hire you’re looking for.
What we’re looking for is someone that can be our conduit for specialty coffee. People use words like “ambassador” or “liason”, but we’re calling the position “Coffee Culture Manager” – this person would travel heavily for Wilbur Curtis Co., attending events like the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s “Barista Camp”, traveling lecture series like Barista Nation, the Nordic Barista Cup, major barista competitions around the world, World Coffee Events shows like the one I attended last spring in Nice, and more. That’s just the short list.
Our ideal candidate would be someone from the professional barista community that wants to get paid salary, benefits, and a credit card to charge airline miles to. We’re looking to hire someone that gets to travel the US and the world making coffee for people, while being our ambassador.
What are some of the requirements for this position?
Ultimately the goal is to sell Curtis equipment – this position would be a full-time Curtis job, so we’d expect 40 hour work weeks; probably not travel every week, but more like 2 weeks a month to different coffee shops throughout the country.
A college degree is not required; our guiding principal in hiring is, you don’t have to have all of the knowledge, because we can teach you what you need to know. But you need to have the passion, the underlying characteristics of an employee; you need to be driven, because this position needs to be self-reliant and self-starting. There needs to be a pretty high level of self-motivation.
We want someone who knows what they’re doing, is passionate about coffee, and isn’t a jerk – you need to enjoy talking with people and having coffee with people. That’s a huge part of what this job is – have coffee with people.
How about geography – does it matter where you’re based?
After much consideration, we’ve decided that for this position we are going to require that someone be based out of Los Angeles. This is simply for the reason that there will be in-office expectations and training experiences going on during lulls in the travel schedule. When this person isn’t traveling, the hope is that they’d be at the office dialing in coffees, working on skills for out in the field. If the ideal candidate is not yet based in the Los Angeles area, a commitment to move would be expected, and we’d be able to help that process.
What’s your time frame?
Our goal would to be have someone hired as Coffee Culture Manager in time for the 2014 Big Eastern Barista Competition this coming January, in Durham, North Carolina.
How to interested parties get in touch?
Please send a resume with references to mavelar@wilburcurtis.com.
