Bartenders mix and serve beverages at various establishments, such as restaurants, sports bars, country clubs, hotels, or catering companies. Bartenders need to know beers, wine, spirits, and cocktails and how each of those beverages should be served.  

Bartenders can sometimes also be called mixologists, barkeeps, barman, or barmaids. It is a good idea to set up job alerts for a few of these different keywords so you do not miss out on any opportunities in your area.  

Bartenders are required to verify that the customers in their establishment are of legal drinking age. Historically, bartending has been viewed as a "transitional occupation, mostly for students to work and support themselves as they go to school. However, there is an increasing social acceptance of bartending as a viable long-term career.  

 If you do not plan on making bartending your long-term career, please know that bartending provides a great experience in soft skills such as customer service, organization, multitasking, and risk assessment. You can take these skills to almost any future career and find a way to apply them.

Personality of a Bartender
Bartenders need to be focused and have excellent customer service skills to be successful. They also need the following personality traits: 

• Team Player

Bartenders do not work alone. They work with bar backs, front-of-house staff, and management. They need to know their position on the team and put in the work to ensure the team has a good service. 

• Self-Starter

Bartending is not for those that wait to be told what to do. If you see that your bar is running low on ice and your barback is nowhere in sight, you get ice. If you see a client looking a little woozy, you decide to cut them off and serve them water instead. You need to trust your instincts and do the necessary to keep things running smoothly.

• People Person

You do not need to be the most extroverted person on the planet, but you need to be able to serve customers politely and make some small talk. Some customers like chatting with Bartenders, while others want to be left alone. You need to be able to read people and figure out who needs more attention.  

• Organized

Bartenders need to manage a lot of things at once when things get busy, such as serving customers, bringing people their bills, making sure the bar is clean, and communicating to the rest of their staff.  You need to prioritize tasks quickly and move through the line of customers efficiently and politely.