Joseph Canas

My role as a shift lead is to uphold a work standard and be a lead voice for my fellow employees. I am responsible for delegating tasks and overall upkeep of the cafe in order to provide guests a positive experience. My role requires great people skills, team management, good judgement, and good communication.

My work as a musician over the years has come in many forms. I’ve earned my work mostly through being a solo musician to provide ambiance/entertainment and by being a guitarist for hire to accompany other musicians or play in several different bands and projects. I’ve also collaborated with artists in creative settings and studios and have at times been a band leader, mentor, and teacher to my peers in music. Aside from musical knowledge and learning material for shows/gigs, my job as a musician requires many more skills applicable to a workplace.
Being a gigging musician requires me to network with fellow musicians and maintain relationships with business owners to bring music to establishments such as bars, restaurants, art galleries, and street fairs. I’m often a promoter for these events which requires me to use graphic design and social media skills to create promotional material to share with my network.

My duties at The Dorian were mostly typical of bartending jobs, but there I took on more responsibilities
than in previous bar positions. My duties included maintaining the cleanliness of the bar and the freshness of our products, accurately handling money, mastering our food and drink menu, managing the alcohol consumption of guests, and most importantly, upholding the culture of leisure and fun while ensuring a safe and comfortable environment for our guests.
Due to the uncertainty of livelihood caused by the pandemic, bar staff, including management, were frequently in and out of the establishment. As one of the longer-tenured bartenders, I took on more hours and became the go-to person for private parties held in our space. I also trained new staff to uphold proper standards for our procedures and expectations.

I worked as a barback and learned the ins and outs of how the bar functions for over a year before I was given the right to bartend. As a barback, I was in charge of setting up the bar and preparing everything that the bartenders need throughout the shift. Being a bar back also came with a lot of work during non business hours. I volunteered to work deliveries in order to learn how to take inventory and order from vendors. As a bartender, my job was to serve drinks and food in a timely fashion while providing great customer service and conversation when necessary. Being a bartender came with a lot more responsibility. I was in charge of back backs and making sure they got their work done. I also trained all bar backs and prepared them with knowledge for when it was their time to become bartenders.

I started as a seasonal sales associate and quickly worked my way up to a keyholder and eventually manager after about a year of employment. As a manager, I was tasked with training my employees to provide customers with a memorable shopping experience and achieving monthly sales goals. My main job was to make sure sales goals were being met but I was also tasked with maintaining inventory in the stockroom. Maintaining stock included shipping out product that had been sitting for too long, making space for new inventory, scanning boxes accurately, and managing tasks given to stock workers. During my tenure for this Shiekh, I was one of the youngest assistant managers in one of the busiest locations in the entire Company. I was offered my own store in Milpitas but I turned down the offer to move on and focus on my personal life.