What I think the biggest problem is that a recent Bartenderschool grad gets
hired and put behind the bar with you and when you try and help them.... (
I'm a bartenderschool 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 Bartenderschool
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 bartenderschool. 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