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Subject: Re: American Bartending schools
From: Bruce Tomlinson
Posted: Tue Aug 18. 2009, 11:08 UTC
Followup to: "Re: American Bartending schools"  by JMWhiteIV  (Mon Aug 17. 2009, 11:26 UTC)
What I think the biggest problem is that a recent Bartender school grad gets 
hired and put behind the bar with you and when you try and help them....  ( 
I'm a bartender school grad. I do not need your help ) By the time they 
realize they don't know shit and that you been doing this over 30 years and 
you still read books and take classes. You have lost money {short term & long 
term} do to their ineptness. I have seen this over and over.  The schools are 
afraid to be honest. If the students were informed that after graduation their 
skill level will be bare bones and will probably only get a job at slow 
establishment with minuscule tips.
They might not join the school.

I have found it easer to train people who did not go the Bartender school 
route. 

The vast majority of places I have worked were to busy and only hire highly 
skilled Bartenders, but I have been brought in to help turn a few fledgling 
places around. More than once I have had to clean house and start with a fresh 
crew. This opinion is not just mine. Over the years I have had this subject 
come up. Overwelmingly bar managers agree that it is easer to train Joe/Jane 
off the street than brake a Bartending school grad of their bad habits.  This 
is not to slam the grads. The students are going to the school for all the 
right reasons.

If you are planing to go to a bartender school. Here is my suggestion. Go to 
10 of you favorite establishments. Ask to speak to the Bar Manager. Ask 
his/her if you should go to school or get a bar back job to break into this 
business. You might just get the bar back job and skip the cost of the 
school....
Plus you have made some contacts in the industry. 
 

   
Cheers 
Bruce Tomlinson
http://WorldWideDrinks.com


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