I have held a dozen different jobs in my lifetime – maybe more. I’m always interested in trying new things and seeing what I like (or don’t like) firsthand. Before I had a college degree, I took on a lot of the kinds of jobs that you can get without an education. For example, I tried waitressing several times.

I didn’t like waitressing at all. I wasn’t good at it. My memory wasn’t great. I didn’t really serve people quickly or efficiently. It just wasn’t my thing. But there was one kind of waitressing that I did that worked for me for awhile. I worked as a cocktail waitress in a bowling alley.

That sounds funny now but at the time it was a really good job. It wasn’t as intense as serving drinks in a bar. The men who hit on me (and proposed to me) were relatively harmless so I never felt like I was being hassled or was facing any serious risks. Nobody got especially drunk but everyone was having a good time.

The fact that this went so well made me think for awhile that I might want to be a bartender at a place like that, somewhere laidback and easygoing. But there are a lot of pros and cons to being a bartender. There’s definitely the benefit of good money and decent part-time hours. But there are legal risks and social complications and other drawbacks that ultimately made me choose not to pursue that route.

Still, I can see bartending being fun in the right kind of setting. What do you think?

Tags: bartender, bartending, career choices, employment, jobs, pros and cons of bartending, waitressing, work