LOVE COFFEE LOVE PEOPLE - Hear about some of our employees career paths while working for Starbucks UK

We want all our partners to have the freedom to move to wherever their strengths lie. If you’ve got the talent, your skills will take you as far as you can go. Show willing, show passion and the sky’s the limit. Here are just some of the paths our partners have taken:

My career started as a Christmas temporary partner in Castle Lane, Belfast. I was a student and needed some money to support my studies.

I was bitten by the bug and became a part-time Barista at the same store. And progressed to a part-time Shift Supervisor.

On completing my degree (I got a first in Physics, but by now I'd decided that Starbucks was where I wanted to be!), I became a full time Shift Supervisor. I was really getting into it now!

From here I transferred to Boucher Road, Belfast to became an Assistant Store Manager.

And in April I returned to the store where it all started - I was back to take on Castle Lane as an Assistant Store Manager.

I'm now Store Manager at Ballymena and I couldn't be happier. All my managers have motivated me to get me where I want to be. Their support has been invaluable and inspirational. And I recently did my best fundraiser yet in the Brecon Beacons! A 25km mountain bike ride, canoe relay and 2km hike with a difference – carrying a bucket of water to mirror the struggle of many Ethiopian women. A fantastic experience and the money went to a great cause.

I started my career at Starbucks in the Castle Street store, the first Starbucks in Liverpool. Having completed my degree, I was on course to enter teaching, when I saw the advert for Baristas. Four months later I was a Shift Supervisor.

Two years on and I became an Assistant Store Manager, just as our second store opened in Liverpool. Starbucks taught me to do everything to the best of my ability.

After nine months, my big opportunity came to run and open my first store in Cheshire Oaks Borders. At the time Starbucks was running a competition for one store from each district to win a week's all inclusive holiday to Barbados (for achieving the biggest sales versus budget increase in their store). We won! Even better.... my boyfriend (a Barista whom I'd met whilst working at Castle Street), proposed to me on the first day of the holiday.

Steve and I were married at Liverpool Town Hall. Many of our regulars came out to see us and some even came to the wedding! We honeymooned in Sydney Australia for three weeks, paid for from our Bean Stock. Only two years before we'd used some of our stock options to pay for the deposit for our house - another great reason to work for Starbucks!

This year saw the birth of our beautiful daughter, Meadow. My length of service meant I had three months of maternity leave paid at full pay. This fantastic benefit gave me the opportunity to spend quality time with Meadow.

My current challenge is a secondment in our Learning team, rewriting 6 modules for the Retail Manager in Training programme, something I've become increasingly interested in. I was so proud when I got the role! I've stayed with Starbucks for 11 years because I fell in love here, made my best friendships here and found out what my passions were. Starbucks helped me find my family and allowed me to enjoy it.

I joined the George Street store in Edinburgh as a Barista, and spent the next six months learning the ropes. Later that year, I was promoted to Shift Supervisor. I loved the Barista job but wanted to make use of my previous managerial experience.

Straight into an Assistant Store Manager role at the Royal Mile, Edinburgh. This was a new store opening opportunity and as I'd performed well in the supervisor role, this was the next natural step. In July, I'm Store Manager back at George Street, Edinburgh. Even though I'd only held the assistant manager position for eight months I felt that I could handle a smaller store and that it would set me up to progress to a larger one in future.

Another Store Manager role in George Street, Edinburgh, but this was another new store opening. This one fulfilled my desire to manage a higher volume store. Over the four years here we built a very strong business which performed consistently and built up a very solid customer base which exists to this day.

From June to November I was the assistant District Manager, Northern Ireland. I jumped at the chance to spend longer working on five new store openings expanding the business. But in May I went back to being a Store Manager. We'd started to expand to the South and the company wanted an experienced manager to open the flagship store in Dublin so I stepped into this very challenging role.

After a year away I wanted to return to Edinburgh. So I took the role of Store Manager at Colinton Road, all the while preparing myself to apply for a District Manager role should it come up.

In March a District Manager position became available in Edinburgh and with the support of my Regional Director I applied for and was successful in getting the role which I currently hold.