The legalized marijuana job boom is leading to a grey area for would-be employees with black market experience. And that means some frank discussions about what’s being called “green experience.”
“At Cannabis at Work we’re fully confidential and so sometimes I get resumes that have no green experience, but I have a funny feeling that there’s a story behind it,” recruitment consultant Stephanie Ostrander said.
She cites electricians as one example of workers who may have “green experience,” a term used to refer to people with previous experience working with marijuana. A phone call to the prospective employee can reveal the real story.
“I find out there’s a whole lot of experience there. So I ask them to edit their resume, send it back to me and put a section on their green experience.”
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Ostrander said Cannabis at Work, a Canadian source for cannabis jobs and recruitment services, is seeing a wave of resumes.
“We receive resumes – hundreds – every week from people who are really interested in this industry at all levels, from PhDs right down to cultivation technicians and drivers, every type of job imaginable is going to be needed.”
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Ostrander said many of the jobs involve science and tech skills.
“The job we hire most for is a quality assurance person, and that’s required for every cannabis facility or licensed producer.”
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Another growth area is cultivation.
“Everything from a cultivation tech right up to a master grower or director of production or greenhouse manager.”
CannabisCon takes place in Edmonton on Friday and Saturday, and includes a job fair. Cannabis at Work will be among the vendors on site and will be taking resumes.
Watch below: Aurora Cannabis CCO Cam Battley joins Vinesh Pratap in studio to talk about the Edmonton facility and the upcoming legalization of marijuana.