Grower Jobs In Co

[Donnie420]

good luck trying to make over 30k a year as just a cultivator.
like TK said 12-15 an hour. they just want someone to do what they say.
sure bring in your home grown. doesnt mean that you will start any higher than 12-15.
i was making 15an hour with one other dude in a 100 light warehouse.(was there almost 2yrs to get to that point) and there are others who only get 2 people per 300 lights. so if your making more doing something else.STICK WITH IT! best bet grow your own where your at now and slang that shiz.
(i was a stagehand back in fla. worked only 6months out of the year and made more there, than when i was a grower here.:().
open a business or start a good trade so you can offer your own service.
Your either building some one else's dream
or
Your building your OWN.;)

so true

 

[click80]

Where I'm at there are two dispensaries. Both also opened retail. One is probably not going to make it. That one is owned by a person who has no commercial business experience and has hired a succession of "professional growers", they have resisted every change and is always in conflict. Totally lacks adaptability and the realization of how things are. going. Just my opinion. I do know that cash flow is a constant problem and trimmers last about two or three weeks.

They just approved, locally, offsite licenses for the two existing facilities and sometime towards end of summer are taking apps for two wholesale sites. I am fairly certain a Denver based facility has their foot in the door for one. My point is that starting with an organization however you can is the best bet oddswise. Just like most other businesses, willingness to be patient, quiet, hardworking and excercising common sense is rewarded at the least with experience and smart business owners recognize and reward those who fit in with that particular organization. I have a friend who's son started three years ago trimming, now he is in charge of all the computer work and is making a very good salary.

FWIW. Good luck man.

 

[xavier7995]

Wish I could intern on some of the large commercial grows:) A mid 30's career change with wife/kids/debt is not so easy, rather envious of you folks can go for your dreams. There just isn't a whole lot of money to be made working for someone else in the mj industry it seems. Going to have to go about reaching my dreams a bit differently I suppose.:cool:

 

[LocalGrowGuy]

Hey TK how are these businesses dealing with federal taxes and the fact that you technically are not allowed to write off any expenses like a normal business would? My guess is they aren't declaring all the cash but I may be wrong.

Actually, that is not entirely accurate (in most cases). Health insurance and other employee benefits that are based and regulated at the state level are allowed to be written off. It's the best write-off for the business owner. This brings more value to the business owner, as most employees would be happy with a nice benefits package. [edit: I didn't mean to sound like a dick here]

We may see lower wages with larger increases to employee benefits, although most average employees would rather have cash-in-hand than a nice employee benefits package.

Employers are also allowed to pay for or contribute to and employee's individual premiums, assuming that business has NOT had a group insurance plan during the prior 12 months.

Smaller shops will likely see their employees purchase insurance on their own, and the owner can decide to increase benefits to remain competitive. Larger shops with more employees will be required to offer coverage or face fines, and if insurance is offered to one it must be made available to everyone. No more management carve-outs or class discrimination (covering managers and not hourly employees).

Owners will also be more likely to put a plan in place. In some cases when employees purchase plans on the exchange with a subsidy, their employer could be fined $3,000 for that employee.

Good times.

 

[click80]

I am only going by what I hear. I personally know 3 dispensary owners. Not the ones I referred to above. One closed due to.....well fraud....the other two are doing fine, both complain (slightly) about being in this 2-3 year (now) learning curve. None say the regulations, and revised 2-3x regulations are not needed but are glad they didn't go spend happy, constantly reinvested and just took a salary....at one time less than the growers were being paid. They both stayed current with the MED so they could try to be prepared financially.

Anyway......both are professionals and run a business that would at least answer an email containing a resume and keep it on file. Most key employees are referred or promoted from within. Just logical good business practices. You can't fail unless you first try. Fail upwards is my motto. The only real failure is not trying. ;) Reach out man. Can't hurt. Odds are that someone might respond. I have heard of more than a few people who wished they had stuck with their "just a trimmer" gig at one place instead of constantly seeking greener grass. Pun intended. I would just like to emphasize that it's a tightly regulated business. TK gave a great reality version of what the MJ business is and will continue to be. Hell I read that Costco is gonna start selling weed in Cali. I didn't check it out but. would not surprise me.


I do know there is one company forming that found investment capital and is going to be opening a large warehouse facility employing a patented connveyor belt type grow system. They are also going to be harvesting phytohormones and terpenes for sale to research and are hooked in with Craig Venter of the Human Genome Project.

 

[420circuit]

Hiring event in Denver July 12th, 2015. Cannabis industry.

Take copies of your resume.

 

[click80]

I gotta add this. Back in the day there was a saying about if you hear of a gold rush, it's already over....another one was why pan for gold when you can sell goldpans for gold?

Seems like induustrial hemp is the place to be right now. Ethanol subsidies were just increased. Corn for ethanol is not going to last.....for many reasons. The corn now grown for ethanol will be shifted to feeding livestock or us. Hemp biofuels are realistic and through genetically modified organisms hemps oil anf cellulosic properties make it ideal as a feedstock for more thana few industries.

It might not be as glamorous but maybe industrial hemp is the gold rush that hasn't happened yet and that is worth a look.

I know thats off topic but still worth a thought.

 

[Tnelz]

Remember that $15 and hour is over $30k a year...so sometimes I'm not really sure what alot of folks expect..I know college grads that can't find a job in their field making $30k a year and end up waiting tables, working construction, delivering pizza, or working in a grow op. etc...$30k a year to basically trim a plant and keep things clean, really..sounds like a dream to me..people should adjust their expectations to reflect the reality of what your actually getting paid to do...can someone actually rationalize to me why that is a slave wage or unreasonable? is it because you think someone at the top is getting rich or something? trust me the guy at the top with millions at risk hasn't even recouped his money and is fighting like hell to make the whole thing work out and keep churning just to keep his kids fed and his wife off his back.

The guys that are making the big bucks growing spend more time than you can imagine sitting in meetings with spreadsheets, in front of computers, justifying expenses to investors and owners, tweaking production flow and controls to maximize output and quality with greater efficiency and consistency. And one of the biggest issues jeopardizing all your efforts is getting people just to show up on time to work, show up every day, do their job, and not be getting high in the parking lot, snagging nugs while trimming, acting on there own behind your back because they know better or read something in high times, bitching about how they should be running the show and how they are the best grower ever and how if they where in charge they would change the game. I hear it every day from just about everyone who walks through the door.

Much respect Muir!! your a warrior in the game and you earned it my friend

Much respect tk. Great advice and u have given very knowledgable answers in all of ur posts. I'd have to agree about 15 bucks an hour. I make right around 16 right now doing something I loathe. If there was ever an opportunity for me to grow for someone 15 an hour would be fine as a starting point. Little less money than I make now but to do something I love is worth so much more than that. Respect bro and if u ever have a opening hit me. Peace and good vibes y'all.

 

[xavier7995]

Hiring event in Denver July 12th, 2015. Cannabis industry.

Take copies of your resume.

Any idea what sort of things people are looking for? Would be great to hear from some shop owners.

 

[420circuit]

If you are a serious ag person with a long timeline, hemp does look like a growing farm business, but the difference between growing 100 acres and 100 square feet is vast. Barns, tractors, weather, bugs, real work. Screw that, give me the comforts of town and an indoor gig. Leave farming to farmers. But yes, hemp will be big.

 

[GreenintheThumb]

Good luck on hemp. China will smash you into the earth. Monsanto is interested in getting into hemp but not med/rec. Some bigger players are coming online with the hemp market, they think it's safer from federal intervention and they play on scales most of us couldn't deal with. The hemp opportunity is to make it into your own product yourself and market it at hippie/health food/whole foods type spots. Or cosmetics. Beyond taking a piece of that side of the market you don't stand a chance against the Big Ag Big Money Opportunist who are coming into this state and the Chinese who can do anything cheap as hell because they destroy their people and their environment to do it.

 

[MrBelvedere]

Follow your dreams. Treat everybody including your boss, your colleagues, and anybody else in life as your "customer". And offer them the best customer service possible. Treating your boss like "your customer" will help you build your customer service skills which is the most important thing to be successful in any profession. Be the first one to work, and the last one to go home. Start your own business, get registered with the state as a S-corp, Duns and Bradstreet, etc. Nights and weekends volunteer your time to help consult with nonprofit collectives, and work for free to build up your experience and grow your reputation. Ethics, hard work, honesty, and passion will get you everywhere in life. Good luck.

 

[kolah]

Not all grow jobs are huge "commercial grows." Outside the bigger cities are smaller shops and smaller grows.

 

[xavier7995]

I really can't imagine the margins on hemp being significantly higher than say....corn or soybeans. And yeah, trying to compete in that business would be a horrible idea. Outside of some crazy small niche sitations, no one goes off and becomes a real farmer. If already a farmer though, could see doing a cycle of hemp as part of the crop rotation.

Still going to go check out the job fair thing and see what is out there. My resume is computers and finance/banking. I have managed lots of people and am used to much heavier regulation than the mj industry. I really would be into interning at a large grow, as the business side of things is actually what I do have lots of experience with, its more the production end I would like to learn. That said, I think the chances of me being able to move into the industry are pretty slim, I simply can't afford to work for 15 an hour and there is no reason for anyone to pay me more than that.

 

[GreenintheThumb]

I recommend people who want to work in a large commercial grow spend 8 hours mixing dirt and up potting. Then spend 3 hours in a suit spraying foliars/pesticides. If you do that a few days and still want to the job then go after it, you can get in this industry easily. If you can't get a job quick take a seasonal job at a nursery or greenhouse or even landscape company. If you think that's too much work then I don't think you understand what commercial cannabis actually is, same work, different plants. If you won't haul wheelbarrows around and water plants in the hot sun for $13-15 an hour why do you think you want to do that same work for the same pay under hot lights with a different plant? I think a lot of people live in a fantasy land THINKING they want to do this for their job. When they get in it for a few weeks the enthusiasm has died. 90% of the people I've taken on who wanted to move up from budtending or trimming didn't make it. And 50-60% of the people I hired off their resume also didn't end up making it. It's a lot of hard work, you've got to love doing that AND love the plant. IME the best people i've got came as line cooks or greenhouse experience. They're used to staying on their feet all day and hustling. I think most people just want to be the boss, they want to be the "master grower" and that's a much harder position to get in, most don't have the experience to really understand what that job entails. Going from 12 lamps alone to 800 with a staff isn't the easiest transition and I see just as swift a drop off in that transition as I do from bud tending to growing. But if you're heart is in it follow your dreams. There's still a lot of opportunity in this expanding market and if you want to work with this plant the only thing stopping you is yourself.

 

[Dr.Pepper]

good post ^ its definitely not for everyone, even if they "think" they could work for 12+ hrs a days around flowering plants!

 

[xavier7995]

I recommend people who want to work in a large commercial grow spend 8 hours mixing dirt and up potting. Then spend 3 hours in a suit spraying foliars/pesticides.

Is there a way to do this? I do love this plant and am trying to navigate a career change, luckily I am fairly good at my current career so I have some flexibility. While I can't work for the pay offered(full time that is), I can volunteer time and would love the chance to hop in a commercial grow and just learn more of the trade.

 

[GreenintheThumb]

Ask to volunteer a couple days in a dispensary grow or in a greenhouse/nursery near you. I'm sure someone will take you. Then think real hard if you'd actually want to do what they had you doing day in and day out.

 

[LocalGrowGuy]

Ask to volunteer a couple days in a dispensary grow or in a greenhouse/nursery near you. I'm sure someone will take you. Then think real hard if you'd actually want to do what they had you doing day in and day out.

Don't you have to be badged to even enter 'employee only' areas at MMC's and OPC's? Could someone come on and work on a labor basis trimming? I'm no super-trimmer like those sweatshop ladies but it would be nice to know if the option were available.

As a cash business, mmj owner's I would likely have privacy and security concerns about someone who hasn't been 'checked' by any sort of certification or background or criminal check. I'm assuming they'd rather not have that info so publicly available.

 

[xavier7995]

Don't you have to be badged to even enter 'employee only' areas at MMC's and OPC's? Could someone come on and work on a labor basis trimming? I'm no super-trimmer like those sweatshop ladies but it would be nice to know if the option were available.

As a cash business, mmj owner's I would likely have privacy and security concerns about someone who hasn't been 'checked' by any sort of certification or background or criminal check. I'm assuming they'd rather not have that info so publicly available.

This is actually exactly what I was thinking as well. TBH, it would be no big deal to get my own badge, but there is no reason for me to do so until someone says "sure come in to my grow." I do think safety/security on the big grows is a bit less of a concern, but I know that personally I would be pretty hesitant to let anyone in.

Greeninthethumb, thank you for the info, it is really appreciated.