Looking for Jobs in the Marijuana Industry? Here are three tips.

Author’s Note: Don’t judge me because I’m going to use Old English for these headings. It felt appropriate, ok?

So let’s say you’re looking for a job in the weed industry. There’s a lot of jobs out there you’ve heard, and it all sounds interesting. Can you help me find a job? Well, we’re here to tell you it is definitely possible, but you may not want to burn yourself out on trying it all. Here are three tips that’ll help you during your search.

The first part of your job search should start with you. What are your skills? What would you like to learn? What drives your passion? What do you not want to do? For example, if I hate gardening, I probably shouldn’t look for a job that involves growing cannabis. That should be off the table. Or let’s say I enjoy chemistry -- extractions might be right up my alley.

Here’s a quick list of questions you should ask yourself, and these should help you pick the job that you want:

• What am I currently skilled at? What did I excel at in school?
  1. If you did well in Biology or Chemistry, growing or extraction may be for you.
  2. If you were strongly inclined towards business or math, there is a strong need for financial managers and entrepreneurs.
  3. If you were good at psychology, writing, or history, marketing may be more your speed.
  4. If you were focused on physics, computer science, or technology, there is a very strong need for developers and engineers.
• What is my current job, or were my past jobs?
  1. IE: If you’re an experienced marketer, you may want to transfer that experience into the industry.
• What do I NOT want to do or deal with?
  1. Ex: If you hate customer service, you shouldn’t be a budtender or salesperson.
  2. Ex: If you hate gardening, you shouldn’t be a grower.
• Where do I want to work?
  1. Remember that every state and country has different rules regarding working in the cannabis industry, and you’ll need to keep them in mind.
• What level of legal risk am I okay with?
  1. If your answer is none, you shouldn’t look at any plant-touching businesses.
  2. If your answer is some, you may consider a company that serves the cannabis industry.
  3. If you don’t care about legal risk, all jobs are open to you.

Your enemy is not finding a job. Your enemy is not rejection. Your enemy is not a lack of opportunity.

Your biggest enemy when looking for a job is yourself. I speak from experience when I say this. The job search is often soul-sucking and frustrating. It often feels like you’re throwing letters into the wind and they come right back to you.

The trick is to prevent burnout when you’re looking for a job. Come up with a strategy for how to prevent burnout. Here’s what I worked out for myself:

• Limit how long you spend applying to jobs per day. I set a maximum of 30 minutes per day, with my optimal around 15 minutes.
• Try different job boards periodically. If you get stuck on the same one, your results may decrease.
• Dedicate more time applying to jobs that sound interesting, and less to jobs you don’t care as much about.

Hopefully you can come up with some of your own techniques to avoid the burnout!

Getting a job used to be as easy as walking into a building and asking for an application form. Nowadays, there are all sorts of ways to find jobs. Here are just a few suggestions for where to look when you want to a job:

• Conventions
  1. If you live in a state with recreational cannabis, it’s not uncommon for regular festivals celebrating cannabis, or industry conventions to be held in large cities. Visit these events and speak to the vendors at the events about whether they’re hiring. You may make a positive impression and land yourself a position!
• Online
  1. All sorts of websites are dedicated to finding jobs. Some are specific to cannabis, some are not. Here is a taste of a few that I’ve seen that have cannabis jobs:
     1. Vangst
     2. Indeed
     3. Ms Mary Staffing
     4. Angel.co
     5. Monster
     6. Craigslist
• Word of Mouth
  1. If you already know somebody in the industry, they may be able to help you out. Ask them if they know of any available positions that might suit your skills and personality.

Is there anything we missed or failed to touch upon? Let us know in the survey or on the forum!