Will Work For Weed

Start practicing your elevator pitch — the 60-second speech to land you a dream job in the cannabis industry.

The Marijuana Business Association is hosting a job fair and networking event featuring up to 50 cannabis employers and keynote speakers from across the state. Spokane is host to the third MJBA job fair to date. MJBA co-founder David Rheins says upward of 100 jobs were filled at last year's job fair in Bellevue.

"You can't find a cannabis job on Craiglist or Monster.com," he says. "This is an unprecedented opportunity to meet this many employers who are hiring in one room."

So bring your résumé.

Employers including BioTrackTHC, Triple T Farms, Blue Roots Cannabis and the Walla Walla Cannabis Company will be on hand, alongside speakers like Eden Labs CEO AC Braddock, who will address cannabis business models and the gender pay gap. Both skilled and unskilled workers in industries as varied as web design and agriculture are encouraged to attend.

"This green rush is unlike other economic booms," Rheins says. "There are more opportunities in this new market, and employers are looking for workers across the spectrum — from insurance salesmen, to growers, to bankers, to security guards."

MJBA is a Seattle-based trade organization founded in 2012. The organization is 420 businesses strong, with chapters across Washington, Colorado and Oregon. MJBA provides networking and business platforms for the recreational marijuana industry, with sponsored banking seminars, meetups and job fairs.

"We have a very mature cannabist culture, but an underserviced industry that doesn't have the tools to function," Rheins says. "When voters approved the commercialization of cannabis, it didn't provide a framework for real estate, or insurance, or the very basic business principals that this emerging industry needs to flourish under such scrutiny."

The association essentially teaches "Business 101" to the hundreds of mom-and-pop stores that have opened since I-502 passed. The job fairs aim to not only highlight, but normalize professional trades in the marijuana industry, and bring together the once-underground community.

"Our disadvantage — our lack of infrastructure — is also our biggest advantage," Rheins says. "We can build a more intentional market." ♦