| If you prefer a really exciting career which has a lot of opportunities, then pro bartending may be the career for you. However, before choosing the career, you should make sure that you are prepared to take up the risks & responsibilities associated with a bartending job.
Do a bit of market research and see whether there is enough demand for bartenders so that you don't have to spend a lot of time searching for a job. Possession of the perfect skills and habits, or being able to acquire them, can really make you stand out from the crowd.
You should possess a certain set of skills to be a pro. It's commonly acknowledged that you should have some extremely good social skills. The successful ones are the ones who have a humorous, friendly or flirty way of doing their work.
However, you should know that people become really friendly when they start drinking. Obviously, the bartender should be able to crack some jokes or carry out a conversation with them.
If the customer takes a liking to you, he will tip you more. Bartenders' income mainly depends on these tips. The other skill that you should have is a really good memory.
A bartender just won't have time writing down orders or seeing whether the ingredients are available for a cocktail. If you're to be successful, you should be able to quickly recall what the customer ordered and the items required to make the drink the customer wants. The more time you take, the lesser the tips you'll get.
When you maintain a social attitude as a female bartender, you should make sure that your customers don't misunderstand your socialness as some men tend to become a bit dangerous when intoxicated, so you should make them understand where to draw the line.
Most bars have a rule nowadays, whereby employees should go to their vehicles in groups of 2 at the end of the day so that they can avoid confrontation with highly intoxicated customers. Looking out for suspicious behavior, along with not selling drinks to an already highly intoxicated customers can keep you out of trouble when bartending. This could possibly involve having to ask the customer to leave the bar.
Pro bartending does have its advantages as well as disadvantages. It generally is hard to avoid yourself from drinking too much or too less. A lot of people generally find that they can't handle being surrounded by alcohol all the time as social drinking becomes part of the job.
However, the ideal person can get a lot of money from this by just working part-time. You get to meet some really interesting people, who become regulars. You'll get to learn about some hilarious stories, and develop good friendship with you co-workers as well as with your customers. If you are a social animal, then pro bartending might be just the thing for you!
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