Future Employment, Tips, Ambidexterity

The idea is to create and keep creating to ensure yourself of a job in the future should you want to change jobs with letters of recommendations from your previous jobs, should you want to have the option of perhaps someday working at a previous job, and should you be out of work for any reason. The high turn-over is not restricted to bartenders, there is a high turn-over in bar owners as well, and usually when a change in owners occurs, a change in employees follows. You need to somehow make yourself so memorable to your customers that they follow you from job to job. The more following you have, the more tips you will make.

Another invaluable piece of advice: someday a job you want may depend on an employee you worked with years ago. Never divulge a confidence a fellow employee, customer or boss confided to you, and hope that you are treated equally as well. It's essential that you remember your boss and fellow employees on occasions that are important to them, and to treat them as you wish to be treated; your future depends on it.

When you are looking for employment, send a covering letter, self-addressed pre-paid postal card, and a resume to employers that you want to work for. Eventually, every employer needs someone new, and if you make it clear to that employer in your covering letter that it doesn't make any difference when he has an opening, that you would like to be considered for the job at that time, the changes are he will not spend the money to advertise for anyone else.

Customers are amazingly dense, and need their memory jogged frequently about tipping. It's profitable to buy your own tip jar, a large sized brandy snifter or some other pretty glass to hold tips, and everyday to put a $1 bill in it when you start your shift. It visibly testifies that you need tips, since bartending is among the lowest paid skilled work.

If you do banquet work or work in an extremely busy bar, you will not have time to measure everything accurately, and it is important that you develop speed. Learn to pour from two dispensers at the same time, whether it is a booze and soda gun, a soda gun and booze bottle, or two different bottles at once. When customers see that you are proficient at being ambidextrous, you will be tipped more handsomely. Everyone appreciates a good, fast, bartender when they need a round of drinks. Training your memory to remember 6 to 10 drinks or more is also a badge of experience. A short memory-association course at your local college is worth the effort.