Should I be a bartender?!?!

[Kurupshin]

I'm about to turn 18 and I need a different job for the summer. I want to get a computer job, but the market is sort of down right now. So I think a bartender would be a good job. How much does bartending school cost, and how hard would it be for me to get a job since I will only be 18.

 

[minendo]

I thought you had to be 21 to be a bartender.

 

[b0mbrman]

Yeah...I'm fairly sure you have to be 21. I have a friend in bartending night school right now

 

[MustPost]

are you canadian or something?
An 18 year old serving beer.

 

[sheselectric]

yep, gotta be 21, but once you are, becoming a bartender is cake. my roommate sent away for some $100 correspondence course and became a bartender really quickly.

 

[MichaelD]

<< yep, gotta be 21, but once you are, becoming a bartender is cake. my roommate sent away for some $100 correspondence course and became a bartender really quickly. >>



Not to pee on your parade, but passing a mail-order course and actually getting real-world experience and nailing a position in a happening club/restaurant are two different kettles of fish. Most large/busy/hip/happening clubs will not hire a bartender unless he/she has proven and GOOD references from a similar establishment. I.E. being a bartender at a slow hotel lobby bar is much different than being a bartender at a nightclub capable of holding 2,000 very drunk people.

 

[erub]

in Texas you can become a bartender at 18, even though you can't drink until your 21. Messed up I know, but that's the law

 

[StevenYoo]

In New York City you can be a bartender at 18.

I'm 20 and i'm gonna take a two-week bartending course in a month or so. I already visited a lot of bartending schools. THey all say that 18 is the minimum age for bartending in NY.

i can't wait. It's good money, i hear. It's also cool stuff to know. It's great if your friends are throwing a party or something. THey can hire you and you can just work on tips.

 

[Farbio]

it depends on the state as to how old you have to be. in fl, its 18 to serve alcohol.

and yes, you should be a bartender, i love it. good money, good fun, lots of fun people you get to meet and talk to, lots and lots of connections to make. do it and enjoy it

 

[MaxDepth]

bartending school is a good for learning the process of making drinks, how to take drink orders by reading lips (too noisy bar!) and building a little rolodex full of drink recipes. But if you pay for "schooling" make sure they guarantee placement. otherwise, you and your fellow students will be competing for the same job when you "graduate."

I bartended my way through college at a bar that was attached to an upscale resturant. I made really good tips and met a lot of girls. however, a friend of mine at another bar was named in a drunk driving civil suit, because he was the bartender that sold the drinks. some cities now require you go through a TAPS (total alcohol preparedness state) program where you learn to look for drunken behaviour, how to handle drunks and when to cut people off. maybe the school would have that or similar program as part of their study. once you get that program, lawyers tend to shy away from suing you.


good luck, but honestly I'd wait till you were 20 or so. Age does make a difference when handling customers and how the owner looks at you. also, most bars won't hire you as a bartender at your age. If they do, they'll offer the job of barback. You'd be the bartender's Igor: restocking the coolers with beer, bring back clean glasses, taking away dirty glasses and empty bottles, clean up on aisle 9, that sort of stuff. The bartender is supposed to share some (not all) of their tips with the barbacks but many, many didn't.

 

[tcsenter]

My response reprinted here from a similar thread entitled How would one become a bartender?:

You don't "need" to go to a bartender's school, but it can help. I've known people who both trained OTJ or just learned on their own working in restaurants and stuff, and people who went to a bartender's training program of some sort.

As with any other vocational training like truck driving or those nurses aid schools, be VERY cautious about where you go. There is a place in Michigan that trains people to be things like dental assistants and nurses aids, and they have a very poor reputation. Most employers won't hire their graduates. A lot of vocational schools are crap and their diplomas won't get you a thing.

The best way to find out is to ask several area employers, places you would like to work, if they respect and would hire graduates from any particular school, or which schools they don't respect. If one school keeps being mentioned more often than others, that's where you want or don't want to go, whatever the case may be.

There are several good bartending books I'm sure you could find or order from any good book retailer. But, you want to also learn the community preferences and idiosynchracies of your area or region.

Bartending can be very fun and lucrative in the right location and the right establishment for the right person. Don't expect the medical/dental/optical insurance to be all that great, but some is better than none, and the money can more than make up for that (unless you have a family that you need to insure). I don't know many married bar keeps. ;-)

I wouldn't mind being a bartender at a popular night club, hotel restaurant/bar/club, or even strip club that is 'upscale' (i.e. not one of those sleezy joints in the bad part of town). It can be pretty fast paced, long hours on your feet, but you're always moving so its a lot easier to do long hours vs. standing most of the time, and you have to possess a measure of restraint because you will encounter more assholes and idiots than you thought existed.

On edit: Another measure of restraint that you will need, is that you are surrounded by booze, by people drinking, and having a real good time. It can be very enticing at times to 'join' the party and blur the lines between bar keep and bar patron, but make no mistake, YOU are responsible to a great degree for what goes on in that bar. I've seen a few bartenders make trouble for themselves because they forgot what they were supposed to be doing.