Employee: How Do I Become a Bartender

The bartenders degree or certification like most other degrees do not hold as much weight as they once did.

When I looked into what it would take to open a bartending school with a small property, I realized that was a thing of the past. Who is the last bartender to obtain a bartenders license? Other than if it was state certified.

Of course my school would have been focused around placing bartenders in jobs rather than just getting them credentials. But then that will provide a guarantee and a guarantee on a job or establishment they would want. The problem with that is they still have never put in any shifts up to that point.

9 years into bartending I got my first craft cocktail position which is much different. The timing, the pace and the knowledge you need is bar none. Complex and high level. I was hired with 2 guys that had never bartended. 1 that completely had no experience. Another that was a Covid bartender.

Covid bartending was an amazingly annoying phase. People were asking for classic cocktails, high end cocktails and obscure cocktails. Not that it is hard just in a lot of bars they don’t have access to those types of liquors or liqueurs. If you couldn’t make it you were deemed a bartender that knew nothing.

Sorry got into rant mode….

But the covid bartender knew his shit. The flavors of bitters, flavor profiles, classic cocktail knowledge and stories of classic cocktails. He was pretty impressive. But then the job started. He was making 1 drink to my 4 and, 1 drink to my bosses 6 during busy time. And the other guy was exactly the same.

These guys were hired because he felt like he could train them and didn’t have to fix bad habits. I was the one he took the risk on because as we all know bartenders are a bit douchebag-ish and can have attitudes. But thankfully I had gotten out of the mind set early in my twenties.

Long story short there is no replacement for experience. How do you gain that experience? You will have to work your way up. You will have to show you can handle multiple moving parts at once.

There will be some places that may take you off the street with no experience but rarely does that happen. Currently, I manage a restaurant where 2 of our bartenders started out as busboys. Now one of them is one of our lead bartenders and the other just got out of training.

I suggest getting in at a chain restaurant or a small mom and pop.

But you have to be careful because mom and pops can lead you down the wrong path, could give you confidence but once you moved to another restaurant you could get laughed out of the doors. Through lack of knowledge or being able to handle high volume business.

if you go the corporate route you wont learn a ton outside of their monthly drinks but will get a base understanding of spirits and the profession.

Best of luck on your bartending journey.