Would You Rather be a Budtender or Bartender?

bartender or budtender

Cannabis jobs are becoming plentiful in legal states, but many are not as glorious as you think.

During a recent call with a job agency that specialized in placing C-Level executives with cannabis companies it was brought up about how different agencies in the cannabis space deal with different levels of job placement. Right now, for example, there is a huge demand for accountants, comptrollers, and CPAs in the cannabis space, basically, anyone who can get your taxes and compliance records in order and keep them in shape can get a job in the cannabis industry.

On the lower side of the pay scale is the entry level budtender job. Surprisingly, there is over a 75% turnover rate at the budtender level in California. Why would an entry level job in the cannabis have such a high turnover rate? Is it the fact that the job is monotonous, low paying, and has a very limited ceiling a cause for the high churn rate?

I then asked, “Is it better to be a budtender or bartender?” to the job recruiter.

Let’s look at some of the pros and cons:

Budtender

PROS – work with weed, meet people who are into weed, discounted employee prices

CONS – low pay, low ceiling for the future, job repetition day in and day out, no tips

Bartender

PROS – ability to make tips on each order, work in a highly social atmosphere, meet diverse people

CONS – must deal with intoxicated people, standing on your feet all shift, dealing with alcohol (?)

One main difference is that many budtenders were hired with retail sales backgrounds, and not bartending backgrounds. I have gone to do a few interviews at dispensaries and chatted up the budtenders and more than a few have said, “I have no marijuana experience, I did retail for the past 5 years at … (Apple, Sears, Kohls, jewelry store, etc)”. There is nothing wrong with that at all, but you are hiring retail salespeople, not marijuana people who are learning sales, and that is a big difference.

Generally, we thought it was a different type of personality type that would be drawn to each job. If we throw out the whole “alcohol is bad for you and cannabis is good” stuff and just look at the actual job function and compensation. Due to tipping it was apparent that a bartender had a much higher earning potential per hour than a budtender. Is tipping a budtender even legal with strict cannabis laws in each state? If it is or isn’t, we all know that it is not very common as a budtender acts more like a sales associate at department store than a bartender. They welcome a client, answer any questions about the product or strain the customer may have, and then send them on their way to the cashier or cash register.

With a bartender you have a much longer time of interaction, a more social setting, and an expectation of chit-chat and conversation, especially if you are sitting at the bar. We both thought that once the “coolness of weed” wore off and it became an everyday thing, bartender jobs would be harder to fill. The industry needs to rethink the work rewards, as well as salary, in order to compete with similar sales and service jobs.

Which one would you rather be, a budtender or a bartender?