One of busiest Starbucks in the U.S. is located at the CIA headquarters. Baristas go through rigorous interviews and background checks and need to be escorted in order to leave their work area. There’s no customer loyalty card, and baristas don’t write the customer’s name on the cups.
A barista said she initially applied to work for a catering company that services federal buildings in the area, not knowing where she might be assigned. She said she underwent extensive vetting “that was more than just a credit check.”
She was offered a job and was told that she would be working in food services in Langley. On her first morning of work, she recalled, she put a location in her GPS and nothing came up. So she called the person who had hired her and got an explanation of the address. “Before I knew it, I realized I was now working for the Starbucks at the CIA,” she said.
Unfortunately, she can’t talk about where she works at parties. “The most I can say to friends is that I work in a federal building,” she said.
I’ve always thought it’d be cool to work for the FBI or CIA, but this would be the next best thing. Covert operations have always intrigued me, which is probably why I’m drawn to work in creative access countries.