The last year or so I’ve noticed some really obnoxious commercials on the local radio stations for bartending college.
Now, not only had I tended bar in my sorid past, but I know oodles of folk who still do. A few tend in huge, popular places and make more money 3 nights a week than most people do in a month!
The one thing all these people have in common is not one of them every went to any bartender school.
So what’s the Straight Dope? Are tavern/restaurant employers starting a new trend in requiring attendance at a bartending college, or is it, as I suspect, a bullshit waste of time?
My ex-roommate went to bartending school, and promptly landed a killer job, making a LOT of money. A decent night for him was $300 or so, but he would occaisionally see $700-$800. :eek:
I went through the school myself, and it was surprisingly difficult. These people were serious about their bartending, and the class was very well done. Starting out, there were 13 people in my class. At the end of two weeks, there was only me and one other guy. Those people who quit must have really thought it was too hard if they were willing to lose $500 by dropping out. It was a helluva lotta fun, though, and I would recommend it for that factor alone. The school had job placement, with plenty of employers willing to hire the grads. I met a few grads that went straight into decent jobs.
As for myself, I got offered a computer job right after I finished the class, so no bartending for me.
I took a 2-week course as well (40 hours total of classtime) when I was looking to make some good part-time money in my undergrad days. There was job placement, but mostly for restaurants and small bars. The real money (in my area, at least) is at nightclubs and bigger bars. But when I applied to those places, they all said they wouldn’t hire people without experience, especially since most of their applicants had at least 5-10 years experience as bartenders! Eventually I landed a job at a restaurant bar, pulling in maybe $150 a day for 7 hours’ work (day shift at that, with the night shift pulling in upwards of $300-400).
The hardest part is getting that first job. Once you have experience on your resume, it’s much easier to be hired elsewhere. Otherwise, most places where you’d earn the big bucks want you to start out as either a server or barback, doing the grunt work for several months before they put you behind the bar.
My advice: practicing in class is nothing compared to actually working behind a bar. Skip the class, save yourself $600, and start out as a server and work your way up. They’ll teach you all you need to know about bartending when you get promoted.
