Number one: do NOT pay for the training. There are bartending schools around, but they are just scams. There isn't anything you can learn about tending bar in such a school that you can't learn with on-the-job training, which many taverns and small bars will do for their barbacks and waitresses. Typically, that is how bartenders learn their skill: working their way up from cocktail waitress or barback and the bar training them.
So if you are interested in tending bar, look for positions in small taverns or bars and simply ask if they will hire you as a cocktail waitress or barback and eventually train you to tend bar. You will not find such situations in busy or very popular bars because (1) they don't have the slow time during their day to train new people and (2) they don't need to train people since if they're popular, they usually have more than enough applicants who are already trained looking to work there.
You can give yourself an edge if you already know the two dozen or so drinks from which almost all other drinks are based. Get yourself a Mr. Boston Official Bartender Guide and learn those drinks, as well as the general way to mix them.
Tending bar can be a decent school gig. But it can be tough, too: you have to handle drunks; you're on your feet a lot; you have carry and throw a lot of weight (beer cans and bottles) around; you generally have to be cordial and cheerful; and if you work the night shift, you don't get home until very, very late. The money can be pretty good, but you definitely earn it.
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