Questions to Ask a Bartender in an Interview
Questions for a bartender interview, whether you are the one applying or the one hiring. They cover the shape of a shift, the crowd, the drink list, how tips and the drawer are handled, who backs you up when a guest needs cutting off, and what closing actually involves.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What does a typical shift look like from clock-in to close?
Why ask it
Bars vary enormously in how much of the shift is prep and how much is service. If the answer is only about pouring drinks, you have not heard about juicing, batching, stocking or breakdown, which is often three of the eight hours.
Who is coming through the door on a normal night?
Why ask it
Regulars who sit for three hours, an after-work rush that clears by eight, and a late weekend crowd are three different jobs. The crowd determines your tip average more than the drink prices do.
What are the drinks you sell the most of?
Why ask it
The honest answer is usually beer, well vodka and two house cocktails. A manager who answers with an elaborate cocktail program may be describing the bar they want rather than the one you would work.
Am I expected to know the classics from memory, or is there a spec book behind the bar?
Why ask it
This tells you whether they will train to a standard or expect you to arrive fluent. No spec book plus no training usually means every bartender pours differently and costs are not tracked.
How many bartenders are on during your busiest night, and is there a barback?
Why ask it
One bartender and no barback on a Friday means you will be hauling ice and kegs while three deep. Ask for the actual number rather than the ideal staffing on paper.
How do tips work here: pooled, individual, or shared with the servers?
Why ask it
This is the single biggest factor in what you actually earn, and it is easier to ask now than to discover on your first payout. Vagueness here, or an unwillingness to say the split percentages, is worth noticing.
How does the schedule get set, and how far ahead will I know my shifts?
Why ask it
Whether the rota goes up a month out or the night before decides if you can hold a second job, a class, or childcare. Also listen for how new hires get slotted into the slow shifts and how long that lasts.
What does training look like for a new bartender in the first couple of weeks?
Why ask it
You are checking whether training exists as a plan or as being told to shadow somebody. Ask who does it and whether that person is paid for it, because unpaid trainers tend to hand you the mop and leave.
Who decides when a guest has had enough, and will management back me if I cut someone off?
Why ask it
This is the question that separates a bar you can work at from one you cannot. A manager who hesitates, or who says it depends on who the guest is, has told you that liability lands on you alone.
What certification or licensing do you need me to have before my first shift?
Why ask it
Requirements differ by state and city, and some employers pay for the course while others expect you to arrive with it. Getting this in writing now avoids losing shifts to paperwork later.
How is the point of sale set up, and would I be responsible for my own drawer?
Why ask it
A shared drawer means shared blame for shortages. Their answer also reveals how tabs, comps and voids get handled, which is where most bartenders get into trouble with management.
What happens if a drawer comes up short at the end of the night?
Why ask it
Some bars investigate, some deduct from the bartender, and in many places that deduction is not legal. Hearing the practice out loud tells you how they treat staff when money is involved.
Who handles inventory and ordering, and would that fall to me?
Why ask it
Counting bottles and placing orders is real unpaid time if it happens off the clock. If they want a bartender doing it, ask whether the hours or the pay reflect that.
What are the closing duties, and how long do they usually take after last call?
Why ask it
The gap between last call and walking out is often ninety minutes and it is where scheduled hours quietly become unscheduled ones. Ask if closers are paid to the actual out-time.
How much of the cleaning and prep falls to bartenders rather than other staff?
Why ask it
In small operations bartenders do glassware, floors and bathrooms. Better to know that now than to find out you are also the closing porter.
Are there sales targets or specials you want pushed, and does that affect pay?
Why ask it
Some bars run contests, some tie a bonus to a distributor's brand, and some just want the feature mentioned. If pushing product is compensated, that changes how the job feels on a slow night.
How do bartenders and servers divide the service well?
Why ask it
Service well etiquette is the most common source of friction between front of house roles. A clear answer means someone has already refereed this; a shrug means you will be doing that refereeing yourself.
How do you want me to handle a guest who wants something off-menu in the middle of a rush?
Why ask it
The answer shows whether the house priority is throughput or hospitality, and whether you have permission to say no. Watch for a manager who wants both without saying which wins.
What tends to make someone not work out here?
Why ask it
Managers answer this more honestly than they answer questions about culture, because they are thinking of a specific person who left. Lateness, cash issues and speed are the usual three, and which one they name first tells you what they watch.
Where have your best bartenders gone from this job?
Why ask it
If people leave for bar manager roles or better rooms, this is a place that develops people. If nobody has moved anywhere in three years, the ceiling in the room is the ceiling of the job.
Using these questions in a bartending interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
How to ask them
Ask while you are standing at the bar
Most bartending interviews happen at the bar itself, often mid-afternoon between prep and open. That setting rewards short, practical questions over prepared speeches. Look at the well, the taps and the back bar while you talk, and ask about what you can actually see.
Put the money and tip questions in the middle
Tips, drawer policy and scheduling are the answers that decide whether you take the job, so do not leave them for the end when the interview is being wrapped up. Sandwich them between questions about the work itself and they land as practical rather than mercenary.
Ask for a number, not a description
How many bartenders on a Friday. How many covers. How many weeks before you get a weekend shift. What percentage goes to the pool. Numbers are checkable on your first shift; adjectives are not.
Take the answers about cutting people off seriously
Refusing service is the highest-risk thing a bartender does, and how a manager talks about it predicts how you will be treated when it goes badly. If they cannot say plainly that they will back you, that is the most useful thing you will learn all day.
Two short sequences
If you want to know what the work is
- 1What does a typical shift look like from clock-in to close?
- 2Who is coming through the door on a normal night?
- 3How many bartenders are on during your busiest night, and is there a barback?
- 4What are the closing duties, and how long do they usually take after last call?
If you want to know what you will take home
- 1How do tips work here: pooled, individual, or shared with the servers?
- 2How does the schedule get set, and how far ahead will I know my shifts?
- 3Would I be responsible for my own drawer, and what happens if it comes up short?
- 4Are there sales targets or specials you want pushed, and does that affect pay?
What goes wrong
Accepting an hourly rate without the tip structure
A high hourly with a heavily shared pool can pay less than a tipped minimum in a busy room. The rate alone tells you almost nothing until you know the split and the average night.
Not asking who trained the person who left
High turnover behind a bar is normal, but a room where nobody has been there six months means you will be the senior bartender by autumn with nobody to ask. Ask how long the current staff have been there.
Skipping the practical test question
Many bars finish with a working interview or a set of drinks to make. Ask whether that is coming, whether it is paid, and what they will ask you to pour, so you are not improvising a Ramos Gin Fizz on the spot.
Treating a hiring manager's enthusiasm as information
Owners describe the bar they are building. Ask to speak to a bartender who works there, even for five minutes, and ask them the same questions about staffing and tips.