As a male bartender i understand how hard it is to find a job. I have worked in the same place for five years and went from bus boy to food runner to back bar to now bartender. So i would consider myself kinda lucky. I go to alot of bars downtown and i could care less if the bartender is hot. And this is coming from a single college student. Service is the only thing i am ever worried about.

On the urging of the WEBMASTER I looked up the legality of hiring based on appearance and it is indeed not illegal just so long as race, age, or gender play a role. I get it that guys go to bars to meet girls (I know I have) and like to have something to look at in the process. But if you can't make a drink you can't make a drink- you can learn but if you are already getting good tips why bother.

I wrote a letter to a bar in Hoboken that was looking for a female bartender and basically told them that if they want to hire someone who looks good standing behind the bar that's great but they should be looking for someone who can run the bar (i.e. handle those who have had too much to drink, save my patrons from harrassing guests who just don't get it, etc..., etc...with decorum and allow everyone to save face in the process). Needless to say I did not get the job.

On a side note I have always found it funny to watch the reactions of the pretty bartenders (boys and girls) when a fight breaks out...if you have to act as your own bouncer you had best be friends with the local police and have some sort of rudimentary knowledge of how to stop the fight before it happens- just look what happened to Snooki (ha ha).

There are PLENTY of awesome female bartenders out there...I am in now way diminshing the abilities of the fairer sex, it just seems that the hiring process is a little skewed in this area.

I wish bars would get away from the habit of hiring girls just because they're hot or whatever. Not only is it discrimmination against men, but it can be annoying to girsl at the bar. As a female, there's nothing worse than sitting at a bar and being ignored by some look-at-me lonnagan bartender girl in that braless black tanktop. Worse yet is to be at the bar with your boyfriend and have her start flirting with him.

I don't go to bars much, but it used to happen all the time. Although I have to say that the girl bartenders down the shore have always been good.

Not

if you havent figured it out yet you might want to find another calling. I bartended for 8 years and made all the drinks while the chicks with low cut shirts and tight jeans put asses in seats.

having also managed bars, i can reccommend that you not even bother applying for a job that requires a headshot. you think they want pictures of dudes? dudes get good bartending jobs by knowing someone or applying in the right setting like a cigar bar or a steakhouse.

And now getting back to your original question ....

Go ahead and play the game and attach a pic to your resume. Doesn't have to be professional head shot. I completely sympathize, ... attaching a pic to a resume would be the last thing I would want to do.

But if you're a good bartender, you're a good bartender. And unless the place wants 'female only' ... the bar still has a lot of shifts to fill and is looking for good, experienced bartenders to fill the service gaps the pretty (inexperienced) girls leave. And you said you're not ugly. :)

Also, I'm not suggesting a pretty girl can't be a good bartender - of course she can. But the places that are filling all their bartender shifts 'female only' will have to have some inexperienced girls because the really good pretty female bartenders probably are already solid in their positions with other bars in the area.

And no problem with these places having your resume on file when these inexperienced pretty girls don't work out. A lot of this will be a learning experience on the part of the bar owners.

There was this one time I ordered a mix drink at a local bar here in JC ... I was sitting at one of the tables in the bar area. Very pretty bartender, ... very pretty server. I got my drink (I forget what I ordered, but it's one of those common mixed drinks ... liquor and a couple juices - something like that) - anyway the drink i got was totally unrelated to what I ordered. So I called the server over and said the drink was not what I ordered. She said something like, "Yes, that's what we serve as 'xxx' ... I said, "But xxx is (named ingredients)" ... she looked at me all puzzled, said, "But we've been serving 'xxx' as (named the wrong ingredients) and nobody has said anything". I thought, 'OMG ... these girls have been serving this common drink wrong for a while and nobody has said anything.' For what it's worth, I wasn't wrong about the drink (even though I can't remember the drink now - what I remember is the exchange and being quietly shocked) - I tended bar in college and it was a drink as standard as tequila sunrise - not something really open to interpretation.

And this is not a post complaining about the service either - the girl was nice and took the drink back and asked the bartender to make it again per my ingredients. But they did think I was crazy.

Just saying that they were making this standard, common drink wrong for a while, to the point where the response was, 'that's the way we make it here'. I don't mean one ingredient was wrong. The liquor was wrong, the juices were wrong - all of it. I could tell I was hardly the first person to order it, too. That's just the way they made the drink there. The server was very secure with what she served me, she served it that way for a long time - I could tell. And nobody else but me sent it back.

So - I don't know - because the girls were pretty nobody cared that they might get a drink totally unrelated to their order and not say anything? That seemed to be what was going on there.

I realize most people are ordering beers and shots, but - really - my order was a very common drink, and from the exchange they had been serving it wrong for a long time.

So, yes, bartending is prettty straight-up and not brain surgery but you do still have to make drinks right.

At least I thought so. Maybe this whole 'resume with picture' thing means it's completely ok if you don't know how to make drinks. Nobody will say anything anyway.

technically it's wrong to base someone according to looks in hiring, but since most bars pay off the books, they do as they please. what most of these bar owners don't realize is that sure, a cute girl behind the bar might draw some googly eyes, but a bartender who TALKS and SELLS is what makes their profits, not the bartender who brings a lot of friends and gives away the bar.

i can name a lot of jersey city bars who haven't hired me based on the fact that i don't fit their tits and rear end criteria, but i worked for years in chain restaurants and doing service bars, and worked in intimate settings where your relationship with your guests and building a steady clientel is what is really important. even working in real dead end places, i always could make what i needed to make, it just makes you have to work a little harder at selling and keeping good conversation.

funny that the same places that interviewed me and never called back for years and years are always hiring. kinda makes you go hmmmmm.....and the places that did hire me kept me for years.

i think the whole gender bias thing is total crap too. it's a simple job for the most part (though the hours are sometimes killer), you get a drink order, you make it, you serve it, you pay the register, and you collect the tip. why should looks matter if you're not applying for a modelling job?

Hi everyone,

Let me first say that this is not a job solicitation or anything (of course if someone wants to hire me great)-it is more of a legal question of sorts I suppose.

A little background is on order first. I am bartender with about 4 years of experience who is currently waiting tables because I can't even get an interview as a bartender.

Anyway I was on Craigslist and I noticed that there are various advertisements for bartending jobs that want your resume and a picture; my question is whether or not this is legal? Is it legal to hire someone based on appearance or to only consider applicants based on appearance?

Additionally, I have noticed that many places advertise for female only bartenders which I get if it is a "gentleman's club" but regualr neighborhood bars and clubs do this too.

Now I can make a good drink and I can make it fast. I am not ugly but I am not Brad Pitt or even that "Situation" retard and I have no desire to go out and get a head shot to sling drinks.

Are there any other Bartenders out there who have experienced this and does anyone have any advice about dealing with this scenario?