Bartending Resume

This is the 2nd installment in a three part series on how to write great bartending resumes, bartending cover letters and ace bartending interviews. When searching for a bartending job it is essential to have a bartending resume. This is true especially if you don't have any experience bartending. You need to write a resume, geared specifically to bartending jobs, that will show how your previous experiences can relate to bartending.

Many bar owners and managers are tired of hiring experienced bartenders because they all have bad habits and some even have bad attitudes. As a manager, I would much prefer to hire someone inexperienced but with a great attitude. Bartending can be taught, it is not rocket science. Attitude can not be taught. Your bartending resume needs to show the prospective employer that you have an excellent attitude and that you understand how to be an excellent employee.

If you have bartending experience, be sure to include it on your bartending resume. But also include some of the lessons you learned at those jobs. Don't just list skills like - I talked to the customers. List skills like - I used advanced upselling techniques to increase revenue per customer visit. These are two similar activities but very different skills. One skill shows that you undetstand what it means to be a business and that as an employee you have the establishment's interests at heart. You do not need to mention that upselling also increases your tips. That is, however, one very excellent benefit of upselling.

If you don't have any bartending experience you will need to emphasize the job skills you have that relate to bartending for your bartending resume. Make a list of 10 job skills you currently have. Figure out how each of these skills can be re-worded for a bartending resume. Concentrate in skill sets like customer service, sales, conflict resolution, exceeding expectations, inventory management, money management, etc. Think about how each of these skills will be important in the bartending business and write them out that way on your bartending resume.

Once you have the skills, re-worded for your bartending resume, you are ready to get creative. Resumes for traditional jobs are usually white, standard and boring. That's fine when you are applying for an office job and submit your resume to someone in human resources that reads 100 resumes a day. White, standard and boring are deadly to a bartending resume. Use colored paper. Find cool graphics or pictures on the internet and paste them to your resume. Get creative. One of the best bartending resumes I have ever seen came to me on a mock-up of our establishment's letterhead. The resume writer took the time and effort to get our logo and address information from the web and put his bartending resume on what looked like our company letterhead. Absolutely genius. He connected himself to the establishment and showed he was willing to go above and beyond the call of duty.

If you can implement these ideas into your bartending resume it is only a matter of time before you are pulling in the cash from behind the stick.

Till then , "May you live everyday of your life."