New to the forum

Hi Jemmy12, welcome to the Belgium forums!

Hello. curious about what it like to work in the bars here as they may have to be my next job choice. Although i found it funny i went to a subway and could speak more dutch than the girl serving me

Hi Hannah,
The bar work is a lot of fun but the hours can be long and the pay while not bad is often done mainly in Zwarte Geld.
Basically you won't have a high legal income, this can cause issues if you need to rent an apartment as the agencies here can be strict on renting to someone who can't legally afford it.
Also your holiday cheques/13th month payments will not be very high.

I worked in an Irish bar (being Irish of course) and it was much more 'structured' and 'disciplined' than most of the Belgian cafes. Customers in general here are nice enough and do not cause much trouble but they usually have f**k all manners ie. they will not say please or thank you unless you drag it out of them. As a girl you will usually make decent tips (one of the joys of being a member of the fairer sex). If you are looking for barwork you should try get a job before the students finish school as a lot of them will take up summer jobs in bars and cafes.

I worked in both the north and South of the country and I found the Flemish people much more friendly (just my opinion)
You will not need a whole lot of Dutch for bar work, when I came here I had zero, but then again I worked in an English speaking bar, either way you will pick up 'pub Dutch' fairly quickly and since you said you had some Dutch already it should not be a problem for you.
If you want any more info I'll be glad to help if I can

Thanks. Yeah I will of been here for a year and I should know a fair amount by then and I have worked in many bars in UK so i have the experince. I will only work in Flanders anyway. I will be looking for after September so I should be able to pick up the jobs once the students have left. I have a contract here until end of sept. As for renting we will be getting help from my bf parents and he is so that probs wont be a issue. How did you get there job did you just hand cvs out or did you look somewhere spefic thanks

Funnily enough I came over here to work in the bar, I had the job lined up before I left Ireland. My plan was to hang around for 6/8 months, maybe head to Austria and work the ski season there but after a week in faux France I was transferred to Flanders and I haven't left since!

Getting work in Irish/British bars is not too difficult once you have experience as bar work here is not a skilled profession.
I had 8+ years in the Irish trade so within a year or so I was running the bar, As long as you know what you are doing you can go far fast enough.

There are literally dozens in and around Brussels and every major city/town will have at least one Irish/British themed bar.

If you are looking for work I would research some bars on the internet and send emails to all of them (most have recruitment pages)Push the fact that you have experience in the UK and it should stand to you.

I could tell you horror stories about where I worked but I don't want to get the forum into any trouble..
lets just say I wouldn't recommend going near 1 certain Irish pub chain based in Belgium

Ok thanks and I can imagine. Is there any chains you would recommend thanks.

There is one guy who has a number of bars in and around Brussels.
His name is Liam( I can't think of his surname offhand!) but he owns a new bar in Brussles called Scotts, and from speaking to his staff in his bars he is a genuine guy and a decent boss.
I would try looking there for work as the bar is new and is just becoming established. It is right beside a Uni.
There are also 2 Irish Bars in Ghent you could have a look at, but I don't know much about them