The range of available opportunities essentially covers the gamut of job types one would expect to find in any business environment

Looking for proof that job opportunities in Canada’s newly legalized cannabis industry are aplenty? Simply type “cannabis jobs” into Google search and see what possibilities come back.

Anyone doing so will instantly see dozens upon dozens of job opportunities advertised, from a receptionist’s position with a national licensed producer to a supply chain manager and sanitation staff for a cannabis greenhouse.

Cannabis sector postings on online job search sites obviously aren’t a new phenomenon in Canada. However, what did change almost the moment that adult-use marijuana was legalized Oct. 17, note industry insiders, was both a surge in the volume of jobs being advertised and in the sheer breadth of opportunities available to candidates.

Companies across all areas of the Canadian legal cannabis industry—both medical and recreational—are eagerly looking to fill just about every type of job imaginable. The winning applicants may include those looking to transition into a mainstream job from one in the black or grey market, despite the inherent challenges to doing so.

For job-seekers hoping to break into the quickly evolving cannabis industry, the easiest path is almost certainly to apply for jobs for which they already have documented experience, such as in customer service, accounting or IT management.

The range of available opportunities essentially covers the gamut of job types one would expect to find in any business environment.

Alison McMahon, founder and CEO of Edmonton-based cannabis staffing consultancy Cannabis at Work, says the biggest demand for new hires in Canada’s cannabis sector comes from licensed producers. They are still busily recruiting candidates to fill a vast range of jobs in cannabis growing, cultivation, quality assurance, post-production and fulfillment, McMahon reports.

The current prevalence of production-focused jobs notwithstanding, she suggests that one of the more interesting, emerging waves of cannabis employment opportunities is in the area of “professional technical and science-based roles, as we look towards legalization 2.0 and regulatory changes around edibles and concentrates.”

In particular, says McMahon, “we expect to see a lot of jobs emerge around extraction, formulation and product R&D (research and development).”

Brian Sekandi, co-founder of Careers Cannabis, a new industry job search engine that celebrated legalization day with its own launch Oct. 17, echoes the view that the cannabis extraction space will create many new research-focused jobs with Canada’s anticipated legalization of cannabis edibles and infused products in 2019.

Sekandi also anticipates there will be a huge demand for employees with consumer brand marketing experience as more non-psychoactive, CBD-based products are brought to market with, he expects, fewer marketing restrictions placed on them by government.

Right now, he sees a lot of industry hiring demand for smart, consumer-oriented personnel who can provide non-academic cannabis education to consumers.

“With the massive restrictions on brand marketing and advertising the cannabis industry is faced with now, the big challenge is on how to educate consumers—particularly those who may be new cannabis users—about the different types of cannabis that are available to them and what the effects are of using cannabis,” Sekandi suggests.

Mining (and minding) the black market

Not surprisingly, many of the best qualified candidates for the positions on offer in the cannabis job market come from the black market, where they would have been able to hone an intimate knowledge of all the nuances of cannabis growing, cultivation and use over many years.

Fortunately, McMahon notes, hands-on experience is often seen by potential employers as being more important than any official credentials that a candidate may have. That does not mean, however, that there aren’t still some challenges for people moving over from the black market, particularly if a security clearance is required and the job candidate has any criminal convictions in their past.

“We definitely encourage candidates to put their cannabis experience—wherever it may have come from—on a resume to the extent that they’re comfortable doing so,” she says, adding that candidates must at least be willing to talk about their cannabis experience at the interview stage.

Sekandi, on the other hand, advises that it’s better for cannabis job candidates to be cautiously prudent about how they address any illegal activities they may have previously been involved in when approaching a potential new employer.

“Some employers are willing to look past criminal records, some aren’t,” Sekandi says, so his view is that it’s better to address such matters in person during the interview process and, even then, to do so with highest degree of discretion.

In many cases, it’s simply impossible for an applicant to bring any direct (legal) experience to the particular position they’re applying for, which, Sekandi suggests, creates a rare opportunity for Canadians of all backgrounds and interests to gain specialized cannabis job experience that few others in the world can claim.

“Things are only going to go up from here for people gaining skills and experience in the Canadian cannabis industry,” he says. “The trend is definitely toward more liberalized cannabis laws being introduced around the world, so anybody who starts working in the industry in Canada today has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be at the ground floor of a global industry and to help shape it for years to come.”

Seven digital platforms for cannabis job searches in Canada

* Cannabis at Work

* Careers Cannabis

* Google

* Indeed.com

* LinkedIn

* The Marijuana Job Board

* SimplyHired

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