Is bar tending school really as bad an idea as they say it is?

READ BEFORE ANSWERING:

Everything I look up on here about bar tending school says not to go, that you can learn it on your own by working up from a bar-back/waiter, and that you can't learn social skills/multitasking(things you can only get from experience).

Here's the situation:

I live in Chicago and am not able to finish my bachelors degree for various reasons.

Therefore, I have to get a job. I've been everywhere for the past 4 months and am under qualified for everything. Every customer service/hospitality job requires at least 3 years of experience that I don't have. Obviously, it would be ideal to get a job as a waiter and work my way up to whatever but that hasn't happened.

ABC bar tending school is $300 and has a job placement program for after you graduate. Even though it's not ideal, I figure that I'm paying that much for experience in something, which I can pay back in just 2 weeks wages if I do get a job. There are SOME places that supposedly hire straight from schools(which might give them their 85% placement success rate), even if they are just chain restaurants. Experience is experience. Around here, you can't seem to get any experience without experience(impossible) and I think bar tending school(despite it's horrible reputation) might be a loophole to get started. Bar tenders, does this sound even slightly reasonable?Is bar tending school really as bad an idea as they say it is?
I used to bartend at a famous club in the New Orleans french Quarter and several other big places. I never went to school for it. If you can cook easily, you can be a bartender easily. It's just remembering recipes and learning to mix properly.

I suggest you go to any big book store and buy a bartenders book...there's tons and tons of them. Start with the basics, you need to have a bottle opener in your pocket at all time, you want a heavy stainless steel one. There's basic drinks you have to know how to make, and then after you master those then you can learn a whole lot more.

I think bartending school is a waste of time and money. Because everything they will teach you there you can learn from working in a bar, so you will get paid while learning. Being a bar back or cocktail waitress IS the best way to learn. In a school, they would teach you how most bars are set up, and what alcohols go with what juices and such...but working in a bar you can learn all that.

I totally faked it when I started. I had 0 bartending experience, but wanted to make lots of money fast and knew I could if I could somehow work on Bourbon Street. So I went to bars and asked for the bartenders favorite recipes and bought them a few drinks and got them to tell me the basics, and bought a book and memorized one every day, and got a bottle spout and an empty Malibu bottle filled with water and learned to pour a perfect shot.

Then I applied and said I bartended for a year at some hole in the wall place far a way where I used to live for a year. I just made it up, it didn't exist. I got hired and became an awesome bartender. If all else fails, smile and be friendly...and make it pink!
dont go to bartending school! it is a scam! you will be promised a job but never get one! bartenders will laugh at you! just dont do it... and for the christian that told you to get closer to god.... die! i dont think god will be willing to get close to someone who serves death in tasty little shots

Report Abuse

Is bar tending school really as bad an idea as they say it is?
No it really dosn't sound reasonable. You have so many job opprotunities since you have been in school for a while, and youre sticking with bar tending?! I greatly disagree because even through this uneven economy you could still find a job that accepts you. Just ask God and he will surly help you
Well i am sry to say but yes it is becuz there r some really drunk people and they will get very dangerous so u probaly dont wanna be around them but its ur choice! do what ur heart tells u!