Five Easy Steps to Become a Bartender

While it may seem too easy, the key to finding a bartender job is to focus your search and redouble your efforts. Getting a bartending job has often been shrouded in mystery but it really can be achieved in just 5 easy steps. Follow this outline and you will get a bartending job in no time.

You should focus your job search to places where you would hang out even if you didn’t work there. This will insure that your personality is a match to the establishment and provide some good motivation during your search. Working in a place where you would like to hang out is a great thing and will make you a better bartender.

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.

Getting a bartending job is going to require that you knock on some doors and get face to face with the people who do the hiring. You are going to need to be persistent and go to all of the bars on your target list. You may have to some of them more than once. Never just leave your information behind, there is a chance the manager wont even see it. If a manager isn’t available you will just have to go back when they are. This require some planning and patience but getting face to face is a key component to getting the job.

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.

Searching for a bartending job doesn’t have to be a mystery. Having a plan in place and executing that plan is more than half the battle. If you decide to follow the advice in this article you will be ahead of 90 percent of your competition. I wish you luck on your bartending job search and happiness in your new profession.

Helping people learn how to get bartending jobs has been Brian’s passion for over 12 years. He has helped hundreds of people to become a bartender and get bartender jobs through his free newsletter and Seven Secrets Program.