Becoming a bartender

[tpdarlo]

I've been considering getting a job as a bartender as a form of SA therapy. My therapist wants me to undergo graded exposure and I think the biggest thing holding me back is my current job which involves no social interaction at all. My current job generates a passive income so it'll seem pretty weird to people why I decided to step backwards from a professional career into a job like bartending. Anyway, I like bars, I like alcohol, I like working with my hands, I generally like the people at bars and considering I have very few friends my Friday and Saturday nights are usually free so I figure it may be a good match. Also where I live (Sydney) they recently banned smoking in bars so it's no longer a health hazard for bartenders.

Is anyone here a bartender?

 

[Thesephotographs]

I've also been tempted by taking up a barjob however the exposure to all that drink might have be such a good idea I'd probably just end up getting drunk.... I probably couldn't cope with the late hours either but you'd meet a ton of people!

 

[shield]

I tried becoming a bartender but I really hated it so I quit and I didn't feel it was very suited to my temperament. But if u can do it its really great. Maybe try sitting in bars first to get a feel for it.

 

[aj]

I did this once. For a day. I quit mainly because I couldn't face the hours I would have had to spend there after a shorter day one, rather than the social thing. I guess it depends on what kind of exposure you want/need. You could do that and see and talk to lots of new people every day, or you could work somewhere quiet, take your time and gradually get to know a some of the people you work with. That's what I'm doing, and it really couldn't have worked out much better.

At the bar they knew that I was massively shy and said that it would bring me out of my shell. I don't know what would have happened if I'd stayed there, but I think it may have been too much too quickly, and I would have ended up just ploughing through it every day and getting nowhere. Who knows.