It might not sound glamorous, but the hospitality bug bit Wayne Munnelly, an area business manager with Scottish & Newcastle, when he worked as a part-time glass collector to supplement a meagre college allowance at the age of 17.
"I absolutely loved the work," he says. "By 18 I was working on the bar and was so enthusiastic that I started to move up the career ladder to supervisor. So I bit the bullet and decided to made it my career."
Today, Munnelly, now aged 32, oversees one of Scottish & Newcastle's award-winning bar brands - Bar 38 - a range of 12 contemporary eating and drinking town-centre bars. It's his job to ensure Bar 38 is a viable business and to make decisions that give owner Scottish & Newcastle total confidence in its brand.
His passion for the industry has not worn off over the years. It's a cliché, but Munnelly lives and breathes the brand, sometimes working 70-80 hours a week. He gets married next month - luckily to a busy career woman.
Duties involve developing the brand and moving it forward, with full responsibility for the sales and profit of the bars. Much of the day-to-day work is based on this element.
His college course in IT and book-keeping proved useful, as the job involves responsibility for a profit-and-loss account of several million pounds. "Also, I don't know where I would be without my laptop and e-mails," he explains.
As well as the business side, a major aspect of the job is to create the best experience for customers by recruiting, training and developing great managers and ensuring that they, in turn, nurture their own staff.
So what makes the perfect bar manager? "I look for managers with an entrepreneurial flair, who are financially aware and can drive sales. Good managers need to be passionate about the industry in general, and particularly the bar sector," he says. "They must understand the mentality of the customer."
An effervescent and enthusiastic personality is a must, and a desire to produce the perfect drink or cocktail is a bit of a clincher when it comes to landing a position.
"It's about every single one of us understanding customer service and delivering a stylish, high-energy experience to the customer," he says. "There is nothing worse than going somewhere and receiving shoddy and poor service, where the management don't care."
In his quest to deliver the perfect customer experience, Munnelly can often to be found socialising at branches of Bar 38 at weekends - "Bar 38 is somewhere that I aspire to as a customer" - as well as checking out the competition.
With his home in Birmingham, the head office in Northampton and branches around the country from Edinburgh to Portsmouth, Munnelly is usually on the move.
Normally, one day each week is spent in the office, and the rest of the time he is in one of the bars. When Caterer catches up with him he is en route to the Canary Wharf branch in London for an appointment with its manager.
"We are going to do a business review, which is a full MOT on the business," he explains. "This will involve making sure the manager understands where he is to take the business, his performance, expected future performance, budgets and a look to the year ahead. We will also look at the legal side and health and safety issues to ensure we adhere to all policies. We will also discuss any initiatives he wants to implement."
The evening holds a trip to London's West End to see what the competition is up to. "It's important to understand what goes on in each area as well as visit bars as a customer.
"One of the best experiences is opening a brand new site and pulling all the elements together," he says. "Going from a shell with builders to recruiting and training managers and getting the bar open. Going from nothing to taking a lot of money is amazing."
So what does the future hold? "Eventually, I see myself going to a bigger role where I'm managing line managers, rather than unit managers." In preparation for future career progression, Munnelly is keen to hone his managing-the-managers skills, but for the time being he is enjoying every minute of his very busy job.
Wayne's tips
* Don't go into the pubs and bars industry half-heartedly. It's not an easy option.
* Have confidence in yourself and live and breathe the brand - you will get there.