CAFE COMPANY

Autumn Smith

NEW GRAD

Autumn Smith

Community Relations

VIDEO

I love just having a good time with other people.

My name is Autumn Smith. I'm from Cleveland, Ohio in America and I moved to Tokyo in September 2015. I studied East Asian Studies and Japanese at a small school called Wittenberg University. I guess the things I'm good at are coffee, music, event planning and communication.
I love talking with people. I love just having a good time with other people. I love that kind of atmosphere. In terms of hobbies, I like reading, going to cafes, listening to music, and going to events. ^^

Q: Your relationship to coffee?

My mom has this habit of drinking almost four cups of coffee a day. No more, no less. So, when I was a kid, I loved the smell of coffee and when I got into college I got into latte art. I'm just beginning, but I wanted to study coffee so that's why I joined Cafe Company. Coffee is something that bring people together and naturally creates a community, and it's something you can enjoy regardless of language.

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Q: How did you come to join Cafe Company?

I was teaching English at a municipal school for a year in 2015. But at that time, I felt like I wasn't growing at all, and that there was more that I could do. I always had an interest in cafes and coffee so I looked to Google sensei for advice and found Cafe Company. In the company explanation, the word community kept coming up repeatedly, and I thought if I could make my own community that it could create opportunities for my future. So, I thought, why not challenge myself and try to work in a company like Cafe Company? I worked for 5 months in Planet3rd in Koenji and worked in Marunouchi Cafe x WIRED CAFE for about a month.

I was teaching English, but felt like I wasn't growing.

Q: What are you doing now?

I'm working in the main office now. My job title is community relations. Starting in April I will mainly be working on the WIRED HOTEL project and working to build up that community. I'll do event planning, SNS management, and meet with lots of different people doing things in the community.

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Q: What does community mean to you?

Community to me is a safe place. Also, I think it's a place where you can be yourself. When I was a kid, I moved almost 12 times before high school. So, in that kind of lifestyle, community becomes more than a place, it becomes the people you meet, the places you go, or the sports team you were on. Community is people, places, history, future, culture. It's not just one place. It's everything that has to do with that place.

Q: A word for those thinking of joining Cafe Company?

For those who are trying to find what kind of thing they can do, this might be the company for you. If you want to find the potential you have, sometimes you have to do something you would never have thought you would do. Go somewhere different, meet different people, and challenging yourself to do something you have never done before. Unless you explore outside of what you know, you will never know how big the world is. You decide how far you can go with how hard you push yourself. I feel like if you join this company, the possibilities in front of you are endless.

CAREER / PROFILE

Graduated Wittenberg University in 2014, spent a year teaching English in Hachioji, joined Cafe Company in 2016.
Shops worked: Planet3rd Koenji (Internship) → Marunouchi Café × WIRED CAFE (Training) → Head Office (Full-timer)
Favorite food: bread
Favorite drink: coffee
Favorite vegetable: gobo

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