Katelyn Baker
Well-Known Member
Despite the low pay and murky future, an increasing number of people are leaving cushy jobs in prestigious industries to study cannabis, launch startups, or take jobs in the Bay Area's booming medical marijuana industry.
With or without the passage of legalized adult recreational use of cannabis – Proposition 64 on the November ballot – the industry is growing rapidly in response to new government regulations as well as growing demand for the explosion of products available for sale in the medical marijuana market, said industry leaders.
From entry level jobs as bud tenders or flower trimmers to professional positions in engineering and chemistry, most companies in cannabis related industries in the Bay Area have jobs to fill now and expect to increase their rate of hiring in the coming year.
The interest in the cannabis field is evident from the growing enrollment at Oakland's Oaksterdam University, a private school with a faculty of 200 part-time teachers, mostly industry experts, who teach students how to grow and sell pot.
Since the school opened 10 years ago more than 30,000 people have taken classes at Oaksterdam, 60 percent from out of state, including students from 30 countries, said Dr. Aseem Sappal, dean of the school.
Sappal, 41, who left the medical field to teach at Oaksterdam, said that there are people "of all ages and from all walks of life" taking classes. The school offers credits in continuing education to physicians, nurses, and attorneys, he said. This year, some 4,000 students are expected to enroll in one of the Oakland programs, and later this year, the school will open a campus in Las Vegas. Depending on the length of the program selected, the business course costs between $400-$1,000 and the cultivation program $1,500, which "breaks down to approximately $40 per hour," Sappal said.
Recruiters specializing in the marijuana industry also note the boom. Danielle Schumacher, an activist who had worked for a number of cannabis businesses, started THCStaffing as she saw the growing employment needs of companies in the sector. According to Schumacher, 32, the firm's mission is to "encourage diversity" in the industry and to be sure that women, people of color, and people of different ages and backgrounds were helped to get jobs in the industry. The company has placed engineers, scientists, laboratory managers, and attorneys, she said.
Kara Bradford, co-founder and chief talent officer at Viridian Staffing, has noticed that people in other fields – including technology, pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods – are becoming more interested in career opportunities in cannabis. Bradford, who declined to give her age, was a recruiter in those sectors before she founded a firm specializing in cannabis. She said that although salaries for cannabis related jobs in California "are lagging behind comparable jobs in other industries," the recruiters in her firm are still finding a lot of people "very anxious to get into a new, exciting field."
Leslie Stern, 51, left a successful career in technology to launch a marketing and pubic relations firm, Communications 420, specializing in the cannabis industry. Stern, with degrees in computer science and business, worked in tech for several decades but was "burned out" by the long hours, she said. Stern first learned about baking with cannabis to help her mom, who had cancer, then used medical cannabis herself to quit smoking cigarettes.
"The first time I walked into a cannabis dispensary, I thought, 'This is an industry where I could really be of service,'" she said, noting the lack of emphasis on branding and customer loyalty programs.
For Stern, the switch to the cannabis industry has been "just what I needed to keep my career exciting," she said. She's gotten involved with the local chapter of WomenGrow, and noticed that there is a "lot more cooperation" between competitors than there was in the tech field. "I call it coopetition," she said.
Even the uncertainty in the industry hasn't tempered the enthusiasm of companies that haveexperienced traumatic intrusions into their business. Last June, for example, local law enforcement raided the headquarters of a Santa Rosa firm, CannaCraft, confiscating its payroll and shutting it down. "We hope to be back open by November," said Nick Caston, 34, vice president of public affairs and policy at the company, whose cannabis concentrate products are in 500 dispensaries in California.
According to Caston, government officials discovered "minor infractions" in the building code, which have all been addressed, he said.
"We are still very enthusiastic about our business," said Caston. "Once we are back open, we anticipate an expansion and we'll be looking to hiring new people, in every department."
The raid and closure has "definitely been stressful," said Caston. "But the upside is that this is an industry that was entirely black market until 20 years ago, when it became a gray (medical) market. With or without Prop 64, the new state regulations will make this a fully legitimate business, which is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
As jobs continue to grow, employers anticipate strong competition among applicants.
At Oakland's Magnolia Wellness Center, for example, Executive Director Debby Goldsberry, 49, said that recently, when two jobs were posted, there were over 300 applicants.
"People are enthusiastic about the opportunities," she said, even for entry-level jobs.
At last year's cannabis job fair in San Francisco, Goldsberry noted, job seekers waited in line for several hours to get inside. Once inside, people were lined up 12 deep to chat with Magnolia Staff about opportunities there.
Goldsberry said it is possible to "move up rapidly" in the business, speaking from her own experience.
"When I applied at Magnolia three years ago, I told them I wanted to run the place," said Goldsberry, who had previously founded Berkeley Patients Group, another dispensary. "But they told me I'd have to start at the bottom and work my way up, which I did."
A passion for pot and for working in the industry is common. Mario Sosa Guillen, 36, left a career as a butcher to work in the cannabis business. Guillen, who has been gardening for the past two decades, was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer just one month after he began working at Bay Area Safe Alternatives, a San Francisco dispensary.
The comparatively low salaries in the marijuana industry are an ongoing problem, said Emily Paxhia, 36, managing director of Poseidon Asset Management, a fund that invests solely in cannabis companies.
"Egregious tax regulations" make it difficult to pay employees competitive salaries, she said, because they are often unable to write off business expenses.
She added, "We're seeing a lot of people rushing in to start businesses" but then have a "painful wakeup moment" when they realize "it's difficult to pay employees competitively and also maintain a good profit margin."
"These are daily reminders that the cannabis industry has a long way to go," Paxhia said.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Bay Area Cannasseur - Cannabis Field Growing With Job Seekers, Opportunities
Author: Sari Staver
Contact: 415.861.5019
Photo Credit: Glen Stubbe
Website: The Bay Area Reporter
With or without the passage of legalized adult recreational use of cannabis – Proposition 64 on the November ballot – the industry is growing rapidly in response to new government regulations as well as growing demand for the explosion of products available for sale in the medical marijuana market, said industry leaders.
From entry level jobs as bud tenders or flower trimmers to professional positions in engineering and chemistry, most companies in cannabis related industries in the Bay Area have jobs to fill now and expect to increase their rate of hiring in the coming year.
The interest in the cannabis field is evident from the growing enrollment at Oakland's Oaksterdam University, a private school with a faculty of 200 part-time teachers, mostly industry experts, who teach students how to grow and sell pot.
Since the school opened 10 years ago more than 30,000 people have taken classes at Oaksterdam, 60 percent from out of state, including students from 30 countries, said Dr. Aseem Sappal, dean of the school.
Sappal, 41, who left the medical field to teach at Oaksterdam, said that there are people "of all ages and from all walks of life" taking classes. The school offers credits in continuing education to physicians, nurses, and attorneys, he said. This year, some 4,000 students are expected to enroll in one of the Oakland programs, and later this year, the school will open a campus in Las Vegas. Depending on the length of the program selected, the business course costs between $400-$1,000 and the cultivation program $1,500, which "breaks down to approximately $40 per hour," Sappal said.
Recruiters specializing in the marijuana industry also note the boom. Danielle Schumacher, an activist who had worked for a number of cannabis businesses, started THCStaffing as she saw the growing employment needs of companies in the sector. According to Schumacher, 32, the firm's mission is to "encourage diversity" in the industry and to be sure that women, people of color, and people of different ages and backgrounds were helped to get jobs in the industry. The company has placed engineers, scientists, laboratory managers, and attorneys, she said.
Kara Bradford, co-founder and chief talent officer at Viridian Staffing, has noticed that people in other fields – including technology, pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods – are becoming more interested in career opportunities in cannabis. Bradford, who declined to give her age, was a recruiter in those sectors before she founded a firm specializing in cannabis. She said that although salaries for cannabis related jobs in California "are lagging behind comparable jobs in other industries," the recruiters in her firm are still finding a lot of people "very anxious to get into a new, exciting field."
Leslie Stern, 51, left a successful career in technology to launch a marketing and pubic relations firm, Communications 420, specializing in the cannabis industry. Stern, with degrees in computer science and business, worked in tech for several decades but was "burned out" by the long hours, she said. Stern first learned about baking with cannabis to help her mom, who had cancer, then used medical cannabis herself to quit smoking cigarettes.
"The first time I walked into a cannabis dispensary, I thought, 'This is an industry where I could really be of service,'" she said, noting the lack of emphasis on branding and customer loyalty programs.
For Stern, the switch to the cannabis industry has been "just what I needed to keep my career exciting," she said. She's gotten involved with the local chapter of WomenGrow, and noticed that there is a "lot more cooperation" between competitors than there was in the tech field. "I call it coopetition," she said.
Even the uncertainty in the industry hasn't tempered the enthusiasm of companies that haveexperienced traumatic intrusions into their business. Last June, for example, local law enforcement raided the headquarters of a Santa Rosa firm, CannaCraft, confiscating its payroll and shutting it down. "We hope to be back open by November," said Nick Caston, 34, vice president of public affairs and policy at the company, whose cannabis concentrate products are in 500 dispensaries in California.
According to Caston, government officials discovered "minor infractions" in the building code, which have all been addressed, he said.
"We are still very enthusiastic about our business," said Caston. "Once we are back open, we anticipate an expansion and we'll be looking to hiring new people, in every department."
The raid and closure has "definitely been stressful," said Caston. "But the upside is that this is an industry that was entirely black market until 20 years ago, when it became a gray (medical) market. With or without Prop 64, the new state regulations will make this a fully legitimate business, which is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
As jobs continue to grow, employers anticipate strong competition among applicants.
At Oakland's Magnolia Wellness Center, for example, Executive Director Debby Goldsberry, 49, said that recently, when two jobs were posted, there were over 300 applicants.
"People are enthusiastic about the opportunities," she said, even for entry-level jobs.
At last year's cannabis job fair in San Francisco, Goldsberry noted, job seekers waited in line for several hours to get inside. Once inside, people were lined up 12 deep to chat with Magnolia Staff about opportunities there.
Goldsberry said it is possible to "move up rapidly" in the business, speaking from her own experience.
"When I applied at Magnolia three years ago, I told them I wanted to run the place," said Goldsberry, who had previously founded Berkeley Patients Group, another dispensary. "But they told me I'd have to start at the bottom and work my way up, which I did."
A passion for pot and for working in the industry is common. Mario Sosa Guillen, 36, left a career as a butcher to work in the cannabis business. Guillen, who has been gardening for the past two decades, was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer just one month after he began working at Bay Area Safe Alternatives, a San Francisco dispensary.
The comparatively low salaries in the marijuana industry are an ongoing problem, said Emily Paxhia, 36, managing director of Poseidon Asset Management, a fund that invests solely in cannabis companies.
"Egregious tax regulations" make it difficult to pay employees competitive salaries, she said, because they are often unable to write off business expenses.
She added, "We're seeing a lot of people rushing in to start businesses" but then have a "painful wakeup moment" when they realize "it's difficult to pay employees competitively and also maintain a good profit margin."
"These are daily reminders that the cannabis industry has a long way to go," Paxhia said.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Bay Area Cannasseur - Cannabis Field Growing With Job Seekers, Opportunities
Author: Sari Staver
Contact: 415.861.5019
Photo Credit: Glen Stubbe
Website: The Bay Area Reporter
