How to Get a Job with Big Cannabis

Finding a job in the cannabis industry doesn’t have to be a pipe dream, contrary to popular belief. Unlike other industries, one doesn’t need inside connections to succeed, something many aspiring cannabis professionals often site as a major hurdle when applying to pot jobs.

In fact, there is no better time to position yourself as a cannabis professional than the present. If you have marketable skills you can work with weed in some capacity. Marijuana has been legalized in Washington, Oregon, Colorado and now California, with many more states contemplating moves to legalize cannabis in either a medical or recreational capacity. Isn’t it high time to get your proverbial foot in the door and begin a career with cannabis?

According to a new report from company rating site Glassdoor, cannabis jobs are on the rise for white-collar workers from the public sector and established industries. Not only are these jobs expanding rapidly, but they can also pay more. According to a survey by Glassdoor, jobs in the cannabis industry pay 10.7 percent higher than the U.S median salary of $52,863.

Glassdoor based its analysis on a text search of its job openings database for any postings containing cannabis-related keywords. It excluded any jobs that refer to drug testing or substance use.

Here are some key findings from the Glassdoor report:

Key Findings

• As state-level legalization of cannabis spreads across the United States, employers in the cannabis industry have rapidly expanded hiring even in the face of legal risks at the federal level.
• Cannabis job openings are increasing rapidly. Using Glassdoor’s database of millions of job openings, Glassdoor found 1,512 cannabis industry job openings in the U.S. in December 2018, a 76 percent increase over the same period in the previous year.
• Cannabis jobs pay higher than U.S. median salary. The median salary for cannabis industry job openings is $58,511 per year. This is $5,648, or 10.7 percent, higher than the U.S. median salary of $52,863, according to Glassdoor’s December 2018 Local Pay Report.
• 53% of cannabis job openings are for professional and technical workers. Market trends are driving increased demand for a wide variety of skills and backgrounds from marketing to plant sciences to accounting.

Who’s Hiring?

One of the Bay Area’s most iconic cities, San Francisco, was listed as the No. 1 metropolitan area hiring for cannabis-related jobs last month.
The five-county metro area that extends from Marin to San Mateo was home to 13 percent of all Glassdoor listings in the nascent pot sector in December, putting it ahead of Los Angeles, Denver and New York with the most job opportunities. And postings nationwide were up 76 percent compared to the same month in 2017.

Almost half of the pot job listings in San Francisco came from just two employers — neither of which grow, sell or in any way touch the cannabis plant. These two companies are increasingly making headwinds as they gobble up existing capital from more seasoned investors and use these funds to increase their hiring ability and real estate alongside the city’s headquarter companies, such as Twitter and Salesforce.

These two San Francisco stalwarts, Eaze and Pax Labs, are equally tech and cannabis companies. Eaze, which has often been dubbed ‘The Uber of Pot”, has recently moved into a new 20,000 square feet headquarter at Four Embarcadero Center. One can safely surmise this is perhaps the first time a cannabis company has found itself neighbors with private equity firms, law firms and real estate developers.

While Eaze and Pax Labs are certainly behemoths in the Bay Area pot job market, they are by no means the only ones hiring. It only takes a few minutes of searching to find job listings in the pot sector. Sites such as Indeed.com and Monster.com have begun to list cannabis jobs on their portals. As of February 7th, 2019, searching the word “cannabis” on Indeed.com brought 3,642 listings and 759 on Monster.com. Both sites listed job offerings as diverse as budtender to store manager to six-figure offers for analytical chemists.

You can just as easily type “cannabis jobs” in Craigslist’s search portal or apply for local cannabis jobs through the Success Center website, an SF based agency that aims to empower marginalized community members through education, employment and art. For those with more entrepreneurial spirits, there is a myriad of ways to find or create work with cannabis, from being your very own cannabis Influencer to a cannabis web developer. As of 2019, the possibilities of procuring a passionate position with pot couldn’t be more endless.