If you find yourself asking this question, you are most probably not in school and just want to go and find a job. Well, first of all, there are a lot of things that you can do , jobs that you can have, even if you never really had to go to school for it. Jobs such as freelance writing, freelance photography, and yes, one of them is bartending. Really, you don’t have to go to bartending school for it. Don’t believe me? Why not go to your local bar and ask a few of the bartenders. I’m pretty sure that most of them would tell you that they got their training somewhere else. Heck, you don’t really have to spend much to go to a bartending school. It’s not like bars ask you for a diploma, before they hire you (but maybe some bars do, I don’t really know).
But basically, the answer is no. No, you don’t really have to go to a bartending school to become a bartender. If you like drinking and have had your share at drinking liters of beer and cocktails, then bartending school can kiss you goodbye. Really, all you need are your life experiences and your gut instinct.
If you are still not convinced that you do not have to attend bartending school to become a bartender, here are a few more reasons that you should seriously consider and think of.
#1.School’s a waste of money and time. Well, yes, you can definitely learn a lot of things if you go to school. But, if your dream in life is to be the best bartender in the whole world, all you have to do as train yourself. Practice your skills. No school can ever teach you how to be creative and great at what you want. Yes, they’ll teach you how to spell words correctly and how to add things. But, if you want to be a bartender, be fearless.Try it out and practice a lot. Hang out at bars, and observe great bartenders.
#2. Think of the world as a giant school. The best skills and ideas that you’ll have can probably come from what you experience each day. Allow yourself to bask in the world’s awesomeness. Smell the booze and let yourself go. Who knows, you might come up with great drinks for the bar that you’ll one day work at and might eventually own. Also, if you observe other bartenders, you can pick up some of their techniques and put your own spin to it.
#3. You probably already have a lot of knowledge about drinks. If you plan on being a bartender, you are probably in love with alcohol. So, that in itself is enough reason why you don’t have to go to bartending school to become a bartender.You probably already know what drinks taste great and which ones tastes like mud. All you have to do is to experiment some more and you might actually invent great drinks. One characteristic of being a great bartender is to know how to mix drinks together and know which ones go well together. If you’ve lived your 20’s or your teenage years drinking and partying the night away, then you have enough knowledge to make drinks. Trust me, you’ll have more knowledge than other people.
#4. Coyote Ugly. Yes, that movie. If you haven’t watched that movie, then you missed out. The movie revolves around a small-town girl who came to the big city in the hopes of becoming a big superstar. But as the movie went on, her luck was nowhere to be found and she needed a job to pay her bills with. And guess what her job was! Yes, she became a bartender. And no, she didn’t have to go to bartending school for that job. All she had to do was know the people she was going to work with, familiarize herself with the drinks that the bar has, get familiar with the equipment that they use, and make the customers want to get more drinks from the bar. So, basically, those are the things that you have to do for you to be a bartender.
#5. Still not convinced? By now, you should already accept the fact that you do not need to go to bartending school for you to become a bartender. Really, you just need to have awesome skills and an awesome personality that can help you sell loads of drinks at the bar. And well, good looks can definitely be an advantage. So, if you are all of those good things, then bartending school’s not an option for you anymore. And well, it’s not like every customer at the bar would ask to see your bartending school diploma, before they order a drink from you. So, again, my answer is no. No, you don’t have to attend bartending school if you want to be a bartender. If you’re not confident with the current skills that you have, all you have to do is go online and check out hypnotizing videos of great bartenders.
Making drinks and different cocktails is not as tough as rocket science. If you know what tastes good, and what tastes like crap, then you’re good to go. Make sure that you try things first, before giving them out to people. Or, if you don’t trust your taste buds that much, ask your friends to help. This way, you’ll be having loads of fun while doing “research”, instead of paying loads of cash at a bartending school.
So, NO. You don’t really have to go to bartending school if you plan on becoming a bartender. You don’t have to waste your time and money at a bartending school. Just hang around the bar as often as you can, without getting wasted, and try to learn from the bartenders. Make friends with people and you’ll be good to go.
These are just a few things about bartending. Read and review the internet more to find out.