How did bartending improve your social skills? On the surface, it looks like a regular customer service job.

Guessing you've never worked a service job. It's a good way to learn how to interact with the public early on. The success model is not being fired for bad social customer interactions.

Even if you're an introvert, working for a couple months at Olive Garden when you're 19 helps you to smile and be polite when 80% of the customers are mouth breathing idiots. Turns out they aren't all mouth breathers and those para social skills come into play later during your career.

I highly support kids of all origins working in service for a bit. Ain't a class thing, but is very helpful in getting used to the breadth and depth of people.

The length and breadth of conversations you tend to get into as a bartender far exceed nearly any other customer service job. Not to mention it's frequently with the same people.

There are few professions where it's not unusual to have an hour+ conversation about literally any topic, and then potentially do it again the next day with the same person about a different topic. More similar to a therapist than customer service.