I’m thinking of getting a second job at a bar or restaurant in the Bay Area, on top of a serious day job. Any tips on 1) places to apply and 2) how to survive working two jobs?
Here are my various criteria:
1) A fun place to work – cool, interesting people and a fairly relaxed atmosphere. Part of why I'd do this is to meet people I wouldn't usually meet. I couldn’t deal with fine dining. In fact, the less of a required “uniform,” the better.
2) Location. It’s a bit tricky, because my day job is in SF (south of the Montgomery BART) but I live on the Oakland/Emeryville border.
The most convenient location would be Emeryville or anywhere on the San Pablo corridor. The second most convenient would be somewhere near my work. I could start earlier if I worked in SF, but getting home would be harder (after 12:30 AM I’d be limited to the once-hourly All Nighter bus).
More broadly, I could probably work anywhere in downtown SF, the Mission, downtown Oakland, Rockridge, Emeryville, or downtown Berkeley.
3) Actually getting hired. : ) I'd prefer bartending but don't know if I could get hired -- I have fairly minimal bartending experience (I’ve poured beer and wine). I have a fair amount of restaurant experience (a brick oven pizzeria, serving, food prep, catering), and I'm a hard worker, so I think I'd be okay once I got in the door. I could be a hostess or food runner for a few months while trying to work my way up the ladder. Seen any Help Wanted signs lately? :) How should I address the fact that I have another job?
4) The schedule. Do you think it’d be tricky to find shifts that start after my normal work hours? I’ll probably have to have shifts that start fairly late. Right now I work here 9:30-7 but could move that to 8-5:30 and maybe even leave here at 4 pm once a week. I'm completely flexible on weekends.
5) Money – obviously, good tips are better. : ) I’m doing this most of all to raise extra money for an exciting personal goal (buying some land).
Overall, I’m still trying to figure out whether this idea is going to work. How hard is it to have a second job on top of a serious career-path office job? If you’ve done this, how did it work out for you? I can probably handle being sleep deprived for awhile, but I’d eventually have to reduce my hours to something that doesn’t make me totally exhausted.
Any tips – things I should consider, things that made it easier for you? Thanks for any ideas!
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If you mess up your day job because you have very little free time, are tired and worn out from this second job, then you're going to be a lot further from your goal than you are now.
if you're tending bar you very well may have to work till at least till 2 and then probably later for clean up, and man, coming into work at 8 or 9 or even 10 after that every day would suck...
in all honestly, you really must have some down time to be able to perform your day job (depending on what it is i guess)
it might be worth looking into how you can save money now by budgeting etc, because it doesn't sound like you'll make tons doing work in the environment you're describing, and with proper budgeting you may be able to put away a good chunk of what you'd make in a second job w/o jeopardizing your main gig
what about working the 2nd job just on weekends? it's a busy time for most bars and restaurants where they may need extra man power, and it won't put as much stress on you...
i work full time and also run a small business selling art and antiques, but i have the luxury of doing this side pursuit as much or as little as a i please, and when i please...which is a world away from working for the man on a regular schedule
posted by Salvatorparadise at 12:46 PM on May 29, 2007