Past Tense

A bartending job isn’t has hard to get as you think it is. If you are willing to focus and put in some effort you will be able to pull it off even if you have no prior experience. Follow my advice below and create a system for looking for a bartending job. Everything is easier with a plan and finding a bartending job is no different.

One step is to narrow your search to 15 or 20 top prospects. Think about your personality and what kind of bar you would be most interested in working in. If you have never been to a nightclub, then that scene may not be for you. List out these prospects and research the hiring managers at these places. Keep their contact information at the ready.

You need to write a bartending specific resume. You need to have a resume that highlights the skills needed to bartend even if you have never done so. Almost all jobs require some level of inventory management, people skills, conflict resolution or customer service. All of these skills are essential to being a good bartender. Your resume needs to highlight these skills no matter what job you had when you gained them. And don’t include irrelevant details like proficiency in word or excel.

Your resume should be accompanied by a well crafted cover letter. Bartending is about having a positive attitude and good personality. Use your cover letter to show the fact that you have both of these traits. Try telling a story that shows an excellent use of a bartending related skill like customer service or money management. It is always better to show a skill in a story than to just list them out in a letter. Those kinds of cover letters are boring and can be easily ignored. If you engage the reader of your cover letter, you are 80 percent of the way to a great bartending job.

A laborious but completely necessary step is pounding the pavement. You will need to contact the managers of the places on your target list and probably show up at these places in order to do so. Restaurant and bar managers are very busy people. Employees, customers and vendors are all battling for their time. It would be wise to show up during the bar’s slow hours. For a typical restaurant or bar this would be between 2pm and 5pm. The afternoons are usually a slow time where a manager will be able to speak to you.

If you are going to get a bartending job you are going to need to master a bartending job interview. Job interviews are enough to make anyone’s palms a little sweaty and a bartending job interview is no different. You have to fight through that nervousness and put your personality on display. Service jobs are about having a great attitude and personable personality, everything can be taught. Without going out on the limb a little bit you will not get a bartending job.

If you have been considering getting a bartending job for a while put didn’t know how to go about it I hpe you take the above advice to heart. You don’t need experience or have to know somebody in the business. All you truly need is the guts to commit to getting the job and the persistence to actually follow through. If you follow the above advice I’ll see you behind the bar in no time. Good Luck.