Message 19715 of 22774 in Behind the Bar

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Hey every one,

So, I'm looking for a career for the next 3-7 years or so to support my 
writing (comedy and screenplays), living uber-cheaply (ramen noodles for every 
meal and more roommates than you can name all the way,  baby!) and working 
somewhat less than fulltime so I have time to write. I'm considering a few 
things, and bartending is one of them. But it's a career with a lot of 
annoying mystique around it, and it's hard to find out what people's industry 
experiences actually are, so I was hoping ya'll might be willing to provide 
some feedback on the reality of bartending on the following things:

1) I always hear it's very lucrative. That you can make a fair amount in tips 
in the good shifts. I see job postings all the time saying that you can expect 
200-400 bucks a night with 2 to 4 shifts a week. Bartending school websites 
brag about this as well. However, I read on a federal career info website that 
the median income for bartenders *including tips* is only just over 7 dollars 
an hour. That's almost minimum wage! In any city I've lived in (Sacramento, 
Kansas City, Tucson, Chicago), that's less than you'd make working at 
McDonald's! So which is it?

2) Bartending schools also brag that they have 80-90% placement and so on, and 
that you can relocate and find new bartending jobs easily. They say it's the 
norm to move around as a bartender, and that you can usually find work fairly 
quickly in a new city, even. I also see lots and lots and lots of adverts in 
the paper every Sunday for bartending jobs. But, online, I see a lot of people 
posting messages about having extreme difficulty finding work, going months 
and months with nothing. Again, which is it?

3) This isn't so much about iffy information I keep seeing as it is a 
straight-up question: I assume that bartending jobs in classy lounges or 
upscale nightclubs pay a lot more than jobs in dive bars where you serve cheap 
American beer. How do bartenders distinguish themselves so as to land the 
classier gigs?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, every one!