Do You Need To Take a Budtender Certification Course or Pay for an Online Cannabis Class to Get a Job at a Dispensary?

How to Become a Budtender: Tips for Finding Jobs and Landing Interviews

Are you interested in becoming a budtender but don't know where to start? You may be surprised to learn that you don't need to pay for a course to land your dream job. While some states require certification, most stores are looking for individuals with excellent customer service skills, a positive attitude, and the ability to learn quickly.

In this post, we'll provide tips on how to find a budtender job, learn about cannabis products and brands, and gain skills that can help you stand out from other candidates. We'll also share the cannabis-related information you should be prepared to discuss during your interview, and provide recommendations for further reading.

How to Find a Budtender Job

There is a huge cannabis community on LinkedIn -- loads of job postings there and lots of company/product/industry commentary. If you don’t already have a profile, I highly suggest creating one.

Then, go to LinkedIn and do a job or post search for "cannabis" and select the location where you would ideally want to work. This can be your city, state or country. You might also be able to connect directly with some individuals based in your area or at a company that interests you.

Indeed is another solid place to look for budtender jobs. Don’t forget to visit the webpages of brands you like and stores near you to see if they have a careers or jobs section. If you’re already shopping at a store where you want to work — get to know the staff and let them know you’re interested.

Prioritizing Customer Service and Attitude over Cannabis Knowledge for Budtender Positions

Knowing everything there is to know about weed usually isn’t the priority when stores hire. A cannabis course isn’t going to get you much competitive advantage either. Most stores would prefer someone who has a proven track record of providing good customer service, has a positive attitude and is a quick learner since a store can more easily teach the cannabis related knowledge.

Reading a book/blog, watching YouTube videos and/or taking a free online course via Coursera or Udemy in business or marketing would serve you far greater than anything from a paid course that is cannabis specific, tbh. If you're hoping to work at the retail level, focus on setting yourself apart by showing that you know how to sell and consistently deliver amazing customer service.

Where to Learn About Products

A good exercise when you’re trying to learn about brands and products is to select a dispensary near you or where you plan to apply. Visit their store website, look at their menu and make a list of all the brands they sell. Visit each brand website, check out their products and their about pages and follow them all on social media. Do a search for the brands on YouTube and/or Reddit— many have had their products reviewed in videos or posts. You can do this for dispensaries, too!

Make a spreadsheet with all the brands and products you've learned about and bring it to your interview. This exercise will impress your interviewer and show that you're well-prepared for the job. It's also a good practice for all budtenders to visit brand websites and social pages, and for retailers to include a spreadsheet like this in new budtender orientations.

Non-Cannabis Skills and Experience

Your previous customer service and selling experience will give you an advantage over other candidates.

- You know how to communicate clearly and connect with people
- You have experience maintaining customer satisfaction
- You have experience doing inventory, product intake, social media or visual merchandising
- You have probably mastered the ability to multi-task.
- You’re a quick learner and you’re super enthusiastic to learn as much as you can
- You have experience handling cash and your register was always accurate
- You can properly acknowledge and resolve customer complaints
- You are comfortable communicating and coordinating with colleagues as necessary
- If you worked in food or retail, you can be mindful of certain dietary restrictions regarding edible recommendations
- You know how to handle a situation where a customer is too intoxicated to purchase products

In addition, previous retail experience can help you become a successful budtender.

- You’re a good listener and offer personalized suggestions
- You are extremely self-aware and can meet your audience where you need to
- You know how to ask questions to understand a customer’s desires/constraints/pain points to find the best products for them
- You know how to clearly answer product and service questions
- You have experience using a POS Systems (point of sale software) and accurately counting cash
- You can maintain a positive, empathetic, and professional attitude toward customers at all times
- You were constantly recognized for hitting sales targets and/or winning contests
- You know how to cross-sell and upsell when appropriate

More skills and descriptions to consider for your resume

- Genuine interest in educating and helping customers
- Outgoing and energetic personality with a customer service focus - coachable mindset and eager to contribute wherever there is a need
- Developing ongoing and long-term professional customer relationships through all support and interaction
- Interest in staying up to date on new cannabis products on the market as well as the latest industry trends
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills
- Cross-sells and encourages beneficial product add ons
- Handling cash and processing card transactions without error
- Ensuring the sales floor is properly stocked and the presence of the store is well maintained
- Self-starter needing minimal supervision
- Ability to strive in a fast-paced environment
- Team player
- Exceptional time management skills (ability to be personable but keep the line moving)
- Being able to identify a customer’s needs, preferences, budgets, and reactions to different products
- Accurately checking customers' identification
- Ability to make decisions quickly
- Strong problem-solving skills
- Handling customer complaints in a calm and professional manner

Use these skills to create a resume that highlights your strengths and accomplishments. Try to be more specific though - give numbers and examples. Always try to show and not just tell.

Cannabis-Specific Knowledge

Again, this can all be taught so don’t stress too much. Focus on building your vocabulary. And at this point in the process, all you have to do is scratch the surface with each of these below and be able to speak with confidence in your interview. To be honest, most of the list below probably won’t even be mentioned, but I’d rather you have an idea of the most likely ways a hiring manager might try to test your level of cannabis knowledge and vocabulary. It’s far better to be over-prepared than underprepared and truly — if you know this stuff as your baseline, I think you’ll be a slam dunk.

Grow techniques - indoor, outdoor (sun grown), greenhouse is more than enough for an interview - you can find examples of all of them on YouTube. A lot of brands will also have a section on their website that details their growing process (at least they should!). You don’t need to an expert on the process to be hired
General strain classification (indica, sativa, hybrid) - be able to name one type of each strain - and be able to describe the differences between Indica, Sativa, Hybrid
CBD (and maybe a couple of other cannabinoids like CBG or CBN and what they do) — what is it, what does it do and how is it different than THC?
THC%/CBD% and Ratios - a big takeaway here is that higher THC isn’t always better or stronger — you have to take into account the terpenes and cannabinoids to understand the effects
Terpenes - pick two that you can name and describe effects for
Brands - be able to name at least a few brands sold where you’d like to apply or that are popular in your state
Concentrate Processing - visit a store menu and be familiar with all the different forms of concentrates (budder, shatter, LIVE resin, rosin, diamonds)
Know what Live Resin is and means
Types of products (Flower, Prerolls, Vape, Concentrates, Edibles, Topicals, Tinctures) — be able to name a few by brand
Popular consumption methods (Preroll, Vape, Glass [bong, bubbler, pipe])
Sizing - Flower (3.5g = Eighth; 7g = Quarter ; 14g = Half ounce; 28g = Ounce). Also understand that prerolls come in various sizes and both the individual preroll and the pack size. Concentrates are most commonly sold by the half gram or full gram; same for vape cartridges (check your store’s menu)
Purchasing limits for your state for flower derived products (grams) and edibles (mg)
Minimum purchasing age for your state
Acknowledge that there is a state traceability system [seed to sale tracking] and unique banking circumstances (depending on your state)
Be able to name where you go to learn about cannabis (websites, s/reddit, books, podcasts, youtube channels)
Be able to communicate why you want to be a budtender

Once you’ve mastered all of this information - check out our list of The Best Cannabis and Cultivation Books of 2023 to take your knowledge to the next level!

Questions for the interviewer

- How will my performance be measured? What is the performance review process like here? How often would I be formally reviewed?
- What does your onboarding process look like?
- What types of skills is the team missing that you’re looking to fill with a new hire?
- What attributes does someone need to have in order to be really successful in this position?
- What does a typical day look like in this role?
- Are there opportunities to advance within the organization?
- Where have successful employees previously in this position progressed to?
- Could I also fill any other roles while being a budtender? …like social media management, visual merchandising, etc.
- How does your store educate budtenders about new products? What kind of training is provided?
- What learning and professional development opportunities are available to your employees?
- How long do people typically work here?

Before You Apply…

If you can, visit a few stores in your area (assuming there are multiple). If you can’t go to the physical location — do a digital audit and check out other store websites, paying attention to how they engage with customers, policies and what kind of products they sell. Can you read about how their employee benefits differ? Do they participate in the community? Do they allow customers to tip? Would you rather work for a “small” shop or a large corporate company? What is the potential for growth at the store or with their partners? What kind of reviews do they have? Reviews can be very telling when it comes to understanding what delights and disappoints a customer. It can also say a lot about a store and how they treat their employees and customers.

Conclusion

By now, I hope you have a better understanding of how to find a budtender job and why, even if you don’t have a ton of cannabis experience, you can still apply and will be hired! :)

I’d love it if you could leave a comment below if you found this helpful!
(I finally added a comment box in March of 2023!)

In upcoming posts, we will look at some budtender resume examples, we will help you ace your budtender interview questions and once you’re hired, we will make sure you have plenty of ammo and resources to help you succeed in your budtending role and beyond. In the meantime, I’ll constantly be sharing information that might be helpful to you.

Check out the links below if you want to dig a little deeper.

Remember to be enthusiastic.

Best of luck to you!
Jess