A skill is a skill

In college I was a bartender at a place on campus at the University of Pittsburgh called Fuel & Fuddle. I got this job by lying. A friend put in a good word for me and the job application I filled out was me writing my info on a cocktail napkin. I said I was 21 (I was several months short of 21). I said I had previous bartending experience (I didn’t). No one checked and I was hired! Hooray for the 90s! Every Tuesday and Thursday I would go to my 9am philosophy class and then straight to my shift to restock the beer and get ready for the lunch crowd. I also worked every Saturday and Sunday for brunch which made for some particularly trying bus rides and shifts.* But at that age you are resilient! 

I often tell students that, no matter what job you are doing, you can learn skills and pick up ideas applicable to other jobs. These types of transferable skills are things you can highlight in your resume and discuss during interviews. Sure, being a bartender seems like it has absolutely nothing in common with being a professor but I learned many useful skills behind the bar. I had to communicate, work with a team, adapt to new situations and managers, and pay attention to detail. Those are useful things for any job! Of all the things I learned though I think these are the most important:

How to think on my feet

Every once in a while people would order a drink I had never heard of. Rather than actually telling them that, I would engage in some very stealth on the job learning. Some might call it faking it until you make it. I would duck behind the bar, open the bartender book, and make a rough approximation of what they ordered, usually with a heavy pour. Guess what? People don’t usually complain about their drinks when they get extra booze! This allowed me to build up my cocktail repertoire over time and I never had to show my (slightly incompetent) hand.

Pro tip: If you find yourself bartending and someone who really wants to feel terrible the next day orders a Long Island Iced Tea just pour a little bit of about four types of random liquor into a pint glass and add the tiniest splash of Coke. Et voilà! Bonus points if you can hold and pour all four bottles at once. I could. This isn’t really a transferrable skill.

There are pros and cons to this approach but in this situation it worked beautifully. In a corporate setting faking it until you make it can be far dicier and isn’t recommended. Instead of pretending you know what you are doing, ask for help! I know asking for help can feel weird and many of us like to figure things out on our own but sometimes it’s the most straightforward solution. It also turns out that asking for help has a lot of benefits and there are some fairly easy ways to do it without making yourself feel like a failure. I ignored this advice in favor of tips.

Multitasking

As a bartender you have to keep everyone at the bar happy and make all the cocktails for the rest of the restaurant. I can remember being on the phone (it had a cord and was attached to a wall) while inputting a take-out order (there was no internet!), while grabbing food, and filling drinks. If you don’t multitask (#hustle) you won’t get tipped and then you can’t pay your rent. 

This all comes in handy while teaching classes. Faculty have to constantly scan the room checking for facial expressions and body language. We monitor this to see if students are confused or checked out. We need to be ok with being stopped in mid sentence to answer questions and then get back on track. We have to use the classroom technology in a way that is useful and not distracting. Oh, and we have to be engaging. That’s a lot to ask while also delivering actual course content so if you can’t multitask you are going to have a rough time teaching.

Managing unruly individuals 

Drunk people can be a handful. At the bar I mostly had obnoxious people acting a fool and saying stupid (i.e., sexist) things to me. I often handled it with exceptionally dry humor and sarcasm and tried to never show that I was ruffled. There were times when that was hard because I also encountered some inappropriate and handsy jerks who assumed I wouldn’t cut them off and have them thrown out. They were wrong. So sarcasm and threats of not being able to come back to the bar helped. 

You know who else can be a handful? Students! Sadly, I have had similar experiences in class. I have been insulted, had my credentials questioned (how could a lady have a PhD and be teaching an MBA class?!), and encountered exceptionally disruptive students.** You know exactly who I am talking about. They over-contribute and dominate class discussion (often having not actually read the material) and they love to play “devil’s advocate.” They are combative with other students and say inflammatory things because they love to stir the pot. They are annoying and it is our job to manage them without alienating them or the rest of the students. So in comes the dry humor and sarcasm. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but it often helps to make the situation more manageable. When that doesn’t work, I bring on the threats. Luckily, I have only had two instances where that was necessary. 

Once a student walked into my class 20 minutes late carrying a red Solo cup and nothing else. No backpack. No pen. Nothing. He was clearly drunk and proceeded to “contribute” for about 40 minutes and then left early. He had been slightly obnoxious before but this was BOLD. This was the last class before Spring Break and I sent a doozy of an email to him. I believe I alluded to the fact that his behavior could be “cause for dismissal.” He freaked out and wrote a lengthy apology email and then apologized to the class. See? Sometimes threats are helpful!

Making cocktails

My Bloody Mary game is STRONG thanks to having to make them by the pitcher at brunch. My exceptionally dirty, shaken, vodka martinis are masterpieces. I own a cold smoke gun and can make you a smoked Old Fashioned. Give me some mezcal and I will whip you up a treat. You have no idea how much this skill transferred during quarantine!

There’s a great quote, “Hire for character. Train for skill.” from the former CEO of Porsche, Peter Schultz. I am a firm believer in this idea and not counting people out. Especially when you are hiring. Take those fundamental transferable skills a promising candidate has (no matter what industry they are from) and teach them the rest of what they need to know. Keep in mind the systemic and physical barriers that many people face when trying to get hired in the corporate world and look for the skills. Shifts like these are what produce more diverse, equitable, and ultimately profitable organizations. Just make sure you check their age and employment history ;) 

*Ever gotten really sick and wickedly hungover from drinking something like Captain Morgan and then had to make drinks with Captain Morgan several hours later? I do not recommend it. Unrelated, even smelling Captain Morgan still makes me feel queasy.

** In case you were wondering, yes they were all men.