I want to eventually work towards a situation where I have a 9 to 5 on weekdays and bartend on the weekends but from looking into it and asking it, seems tough here in NYC. All bars want full time bartenders and I have a white collar career so I cannot do that. The best shifts go to the bartenders who have experience and those best shifts are weekend shifts.
Barback is pretty much cleaning toilets and mopping floors, nothing glamorous in that which can help.
Any idea on how to make this work while having a 9 to 5?
I work at a restaurant with a bar and know plenty of bartenders at other places. I'll be bartending within the next year.
Unless you go to bartending school (and if you have a full time job it sounds like you can't take that time off), you basically have to be a barback before becoming a bartender. There are smaller more divey places that might allow you to be trained off the bat, but at popular bars this is not the case.
Being a barback still gives you access to the social aspect of it the bar scene, just not as direct. Most your time will be spent behind the bar, snagging empties and washing glasses. Yea, you'll have to get down and dirty towards the end of the night, but it's the price you pay to have a "party job".
If you can handle clocking out then clocking back in while you earn your stripes at the bar for while, get it. If you can't maybe consider weekends.
And if you show you work your ass off and that you're a cool, sociable guy you'll probably be able to learn bartending faster than the next guy with no experience in the bar scene.
Hueman
