Ex-Traders Head from Wall Street to Bourbon Street

If losing your job in finance is driving you to drink, what more practical way to go about it than getting a job as a bartender? Enrollment is up at bartending schools in the area--as much as 53% for the month of October at New York Bartending School. The Daily News says that dozens of those enrolling are from now-defunct financial institutions. And one of the teachers from the NYBS sounds like he's encouraging even more to give it a try by noting how organized the ex-traders are. "If you watch how someone sets up before making a drink, you can see how their mind works," he told the paper. But not everyone's sold that education is the best way to become a barkeep. A VP from the NY Restaurant Association told the Boston Globe, "Establishments may be more likely to hire an experienced bartender who is out of work because a restaurant closed than someone fresh out of training."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Billy Parker in News on November 18, 2008 3:41 PM

Comments [rss]

rcltrh

If traders get behind the counter the owners better start keeping a close eye on the till. Something tells me their will be insider trading drinks on the house among friends. Wall-streeters are all crooks.

REALITY CHECK

#9, I think you mean traders should go into jobs *really* related to their original field of expertise, like RACKETEERING FOR THE MOB.

Future Taliban

Traders should move into jobs related to their original field of expertise, like PROSTITUTION.

Yesterday, fleecing unwary investors with securitized timebombs - today giving handjobs in the men's room of Grand Central.

smacky

Spare us all from your feeble attempt to move careers.

JacqueMehoff

i thought the best way to get a bartending gig is to have tits and a va jay jay?

ANGRYGOD11

Without so many traders to throw down serious money for drinks, who is going to employ all these newbies?

tom traubert

True enough. It is, though, a great way to get a laugh out of a bar owner.

mrnoah

The most surefire way to NOT get a bartending gig, is to tell them you went to bartending school.

duderino

i guess you count as one of the suckers that got scamed..

ed_Extinct

^you must be too young to vote. I know a few bartenders who have when they were much younger and guess what, they actually know how to pour a scotch (18+ years), neat.