line cook

front of house crew member

crew member

sales representative

delivery driver

Karl Strauss Brewing Company

I worked in the sales department for 2 years.

PROS
I enjoyed working with many of my sales representative peers and the employees whom worked in other departments at corporate i.e. tech support and marketing. Although it seemed somewhat intangible to move up in the company, transitioning to other departments was an opportunity Karl Strauss considered. 

Also, furthering my education within the industry was encouraged. At one point, Karl Strauss even offered an in-house Cicerone certification bootcamp program to employees.

Some additional company perks I appreciated were a company car, phone, and readily available resources for customers. 


CONS
At the time, I lived and worked in my territory, and it was one of the most expensive cities to live in California. Although I consistently surpassed my sales goals, I did wish I was compensated more during my employment. 

Second during my time of employment here, I worked most closely with my direct supervisor and found him in many ways difficult to work with. I never reported him to HR, out of fear as a young professional. I was informed since I left the company that he is no longer an employee there. 

I have been an employee at Karl Strauss for some time.  I have seen the economy change, and the industry change with it.  Corporate has made some critical errors by getting rid of hard liquor, and following other restaurant food trends, rather than setting their own. Servers don't make nearly the amount of money here that they should.  Corporate caters to the customers that complain the most, therefore this restaurant is based on the standards of those people, and the horrible tips they give. Employees are pressured to write fake "Yelp" reviews to boost the restaurant's rating.  The employees are asked to carry out strict secret shopper standards with every table.  These standards can often sound rehearsed, or insincere to customers.  Even when customers don't want to hear these standards, we still have to recite them, or else we face retraining and/or losing our jobs. Management is constantly changing and coming up with new rules on an almost-daily basis.  Therefore, the perks that are promised by the company, are hardly ever guaranteed by store management.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Pretty good company culture. I've worked for multiple breweries, and not all of them are good places to work. Karl Strauss definitely was. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
A lot of hurry up and wait, and a lot of meetings to setup meetings. There is definitely a collaborative decision making process there from ownership and management, but a lot of times, it's too much, and by the time they make a decision, it's outdated. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Pretty good, and pretty typical for our industry. They were lax on a lot of things like when and where you were going to spend you time in the field, but were also pretty demanding as to how you tracked your day. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
There is no such thing as a typical day in this industry. 15-20 account visits a day for the sales staff. Meetings with distributors. Meetings with chain representatives. You need to be very good at time management, or you will never get anything done.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The beer perqs and the staff. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Everything. Long hours. Big sections. When you have to go on break, they make you break right when you clock in. SECRET SHOPPERS — 8 per month and any score under 85% is a fail. There's also a few auto-fail categories. And they breed a toxic competitive environment by posting the servers' monthly sales totals in the breakroom, for everyone to see, and highlight those who they feel "need improvement."

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
I appreciate the dedication to beer knowledge but the environment was mostly toxic. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Clock in, get to work, run food and drinks, checkout, and do 2 hours worth of side work (because the roll-up counts are 100+), find a closer to sign me out, clock out, drink a WELL deserved shift beer.

Working at Karl Strauss was never a boring or redundant experience. Each month we were tested on our knowledge of the menu, company policies, and given the opportunity to compete with other stores. For instance, we have a monthly special that we are required to tell every table. Our company also have shoppers that come into the store. If your store and/or yourself sells the most amount of specials for that month you receive bonuses on your check and free beer. Working there was a huge learning experience, especially with the location being so huge. Each server had around ten to fifteen tables. On a busy night this can be overwhelming. Although, the managers always did a great job of helping out and training us to work through stressful situations.

Karl Strauss was the BEST job I've ever had. The company culture, training, employees, and management is fantastic. Unfortunately, as a sales representative, we were paid FAR LESS than any other brewery. Still a very fun place to work with descent benefits including a company car and phone, lots of free beer, and other perks. I would recommend this job to someone new to the industry who is ok with making less than other reps in the beer industry.

Basically this is a great example of how not to do anything when it involves working for a company. This place is fun, but also maddening if you have any drive to advance or get ahead. Everything takes forever to get done here, the only leadership are just people that have been there forever, not people that deserve to be there and they do just enough to stay there and keep others from growing. As far as compensation you will be paid far less than any one in the same position as you at another brewery and in their opinion you are blessed to work at this place and you owe them everything.

Working at Karl's is a good serving position.  Money is consistent and the beer is great with a pretty good quality of food for a brewery.  Shopper standards and emphasis can be a little cumbersome when trying to provide truely exceptional customer service.  Overall, great people and a good serving job.  My only qualm is that no matter how long someone has worked there and proven themselves you are only one 90% shop (which can happen for totally subjective reasons) from serious demotion on shift scheduling.  This creates a rather insecure work environment and is demoralizing over time.

Great place to work! Solid knowledge of beer and food trends. Great development programs for all management levels. The two things I didn't like was the drive every month to San Diego for meetings at the worst time off days. I would literally be up at 3am to get there by 8am. Why 3am because if you left any later you would get stuck in traffic and wouldn't make on time! Second would be the focus on being a brewery first and a restaurant second. Never understood this when our food sales where toppeling our beer sales.

Customer Service was always excellent. The food and the drinks were superb. Every bartender, waiter, and waitresses always made the guest feel welcomed. The back of the kitchen where i worked, we worked hard to get the food going in and out of the kitchen. We all worked as a team, although i felt unappreciated for my work when we had another chef come in. The previous chef I worked for, he was kind and sincere. He was fair but firm. He encouraged me. The new chef I worked for made working there more difficult. But overall, it is a great job and a great place to go eat.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Line cook 18 salaries reported	$26.08 per hour
Front of house crew member 10 salaries reported	$20.07 per hour
Crew member 4 salaries reported	$25.50 per hour
Sales representative 3 salaries reported	$21.00 per hour
Delivery driver 7 salaries reported	$20.71 per hour

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