First, we want to emphasize that we do not give legal advice or matters relating to cannabis legislation. This blog will provide our thoughts on how one might navigate applying for a job in the industry if you have recreational ‘experience’ on this topic.

With all that said, let’s have some fun with this topic!

How to show that you have cannabis experience
There are many ways that one can have experience with cannabis. Growing and cultivation, using, and maybe some other methods we are unaware of.
• Do you have growing experience? What type of systems have you used? Do you use a drip system, ebb and flow, or just plant and see what happens?
• Using industry or common words would work and show you can converse to different audience members.
• Any experience cooking or baking with cannabis or derivatives?
• Do you have experience with Indica or Sativa varieties?
• Have you tried cloning plants, or did you grow from seed?

What might your timelines look like (considering cannabis was not always legal)?
Cannabis wasn’t always legal, and for most people applying to cannabis jobs, they were probably doing something illegal (pre-legislation). How would one list experience on the resume?
• One way could list the year when it was legal to use and grow until the present. You could go back to when it was first legal and read about what was legal at that time and then use this as your timeline.
• Or you could write “present” and leave it open-ended.

Should you save some details for the interview versus letting it all loose on the resume?
There is a stigma attached to cannabis, so you might want to be cautious about how you present this data.
• Are you going to list all the experience on LinkedIn? Maybe, or maybe not.
• Are you going to list that you have 20 years of cannabis experience when a fraction of that was legal?
• Do you show that you have five years of selling cannabis? (probably a bad idea!)
• Having a candid discussion during the interview could be a way to show you have more experience or otherwise a way to navigate around some sensitive topics. I think it’s naïve to believe that no one was doing anything with cannabis before becoming legal, but we will let you decide how you want to approach this one.

Have you educated people on cannabis use or growing techniques?
• Educating and teaching is essential in this industry.
• New people are entering this recreation or commercial activity. If you have experience teaching people, then you could list this and how you go about it.
• An informed customer is a good customer, so teaching seems to be vital to this industry.

Summary
We hope you enjoyed this topic and gained some ideas about how one could apply to a job in the industry with personal recreational experience. Please use caution when applying to these jobs and understand some complexities to this new application process.

Happy job hunting, and remember to aim high!