The Bar is a Beautiful Place (for Finding Work)

Here's a trend we're hoping catches on: a blogger over at CNBC has discovered perhaps the ultimate resource for job-seekers: an unemployment center located in a bar.

The bad news (at least for most of us): the center at present is focusing solely on helping Irish immigrants to find work—an understandable decision given that it's located in O'Casey's Irish Pub on E.41st St in New York, and organized by a group of Irish ex-pats.

We've already seen the rise of the pink slip cocktail mixer—particularly on Wall Street—since the onset of the recession. But imagine the possibilities if the phenomenon should happen to catch on and spread to other groups. Think how much easier it would be to network in a venue that's made for it—and where there's a ready supply of social lubricant on tap. And think of the added benefits for recruiters—once they'd taken the mandatory training teaching them exactly what they can learn about someone from their drink, of course.

Example: " The rum drinker is an adventurous type. Think Hunter Thompson. Think Jack Kerouac. Think hot summer day with the sun setting."

In other words, not the best choice if you're trying to land a position in, say, accounting compliance.

Another example, from a different article by the same writer as the last: "Beer is the most ambiguous of drinks. It is the everyman drink. So it’s sometimes hard to decode exactly who the beer drinker is."

One to open up with, perhaps, as you get to know whether your recruiter is looking for the sort of "traditionalist" who drinks gin or is more in the market for a martini-sipping "sophisticate."

Let us know your thoughts: have you gone/would you go to a bar to look for a job? What signals do people's drink choices send out? And—perhaps most importantly—are there any definite no-no's in terms of bar etiquette that one would want to keep in mind when trying to land, or just get some networking done, in a pub setting?

--Posted by Phil Stott,Vault.com