© Photo by Ron Lach
The cannabis industry is still young, which means your next great hire probably isn’t coming from another dispensary or cultivation facility. They’re coming from hospitality, retail, agriculture, health care and a dozen other sectors that have been perfecting the skills your business needs right now. While cannabis knowledge can be taught in weeks, the core competencies that separate good employees from great ones take years to develop. Smart hiring managers know this. They’re looking past resumes filled with cannabis buzzwords and focusing on what actually predicts success: proven abilities that work across industries.
If you’re still requiring “three to five years of cannabis experience” for every role, you’re limiting your talent pool to a fraction of qualified candidates. Here’s what you should be looking for instead.
The Top 10 Transferable Skills That Predict Cannabis Success
- Customer Service Excellence: Whether someone comes from fine dining, luxury retail or hotel management, the ability to read customers, handle complaints gracefully and create memorable experiences translates directly to budtending and dispensary management.
- Regulatory Compliance: Anyone who’s worked in heavily regulated industries like health care, finance or food service understands documentation, SOPs and the consequences of cutting corners.
- Inventory Management: Retail, warehouse operations and supply chain roles build skills in tracking products, managing stock levels and preventing shrinkage that apply perfectly to cannabis operations.
- Sales and Territory Development: B2B sales reps from any industry bring relationship-building, pipeline management and closing skills. The product changes, the fundamentals don’t.
- Attention to Detail: Lab techs, quality control specialists and manufacturing workers know how to follow protocols precisely and catch problems before they escalate.
- Team Leadership: Managing people is managing people. Restaurant managers, retail supervisors and construction foremen have handled scheduling, conflict resolution and performance reviews in high-pressure settings.
- Cash Handling and Financial Accuracy: Banking restrictions mean cash management matters more in cannabis than most industries. Look for candidates from retail, casinos or small business bookkeeping.
- Adaptability: Startups, seasonal businesses and project-based work create professionals who pivot quickly when priorities shift. Cannabis regulations change constantly, so you need people who don’t freeze when plans change.
- Technical Aptitude: From HVAC techs to software trainers, people who troubleshoot systems and learn new tools quickly will master your seed-to-sale platforms and cultivation equipment faster than you expect.
- Problem-Solving Under Pressure: Emergency room nurses, event coordinators and customer support leads have made quick decisions with incomplete information. That’s half your workday in cannabis.
Smarter Recruitment: Finding Talent That Actually Fits
Write job descriptions that emphasize skills, not just cannabis experience. Instead of “five years in cannabis retail,” try “three years of customer-facing sales with inventory management experience.” You’ll get better applicants.
Use behavioral interview questions. Don’t ask if they know cannabis, ask how they’ve handled difficult customers, inventory discrepancies or regulatory audits in previous roles. Their answers tell you a lot.
Look for adjacent industry experience. Target health care workers for patient consultant roles. Recruit craft beer or wine professionals who understand terroir and consumer education. Find supply chain people from food and beverage who’ve dealt with perishable products and compliance.
Test for learning ability, not existing knowledge. Give candidates a short product training during the interview and see how quickly they absorb and apply it. Someone who’s never heard of terpenes but nails the exercise will outperform someone who knows strains but can’t communicate clearly.
Check references differently. Ask about punctuality, coachability and how the candidate handled feedback. Cannabis-specific skills won’t matter if someone can’t show up on time or take direction.
Don’t Disregard Consultants and Freelancers
Hiring managers often miss: cannabis consultants and freelancers bring three incredibly valuable transferable skills that full-time industry workers sometimes lack.
Self-direction. They’ve built their own workflows, managed their own time and delivered results without someone watching over their shoulder.
Cross-industry perspective. Consultants see more businesses in a year than most employees see in a career. They know what works, what fails and how to adapt best practices from one operation to another.
Project completion. Freelancers get hired to finish specific work, which means they’re wired to deliver outcomes, not just log hours.
Cannabis business owner Linda Solana says: “The strongest cannabis teams aren’t built by poaching from competitors. They’re built by identifying talent with the right foundation and teaching them. Hire for skills, train for cannabis, and watch what happens.”
Veronica “Vee” Castillo is founder of the Traveling Cannabis Writer, an international plant medicine storyteller and journalist with more than seven years documenting cannabis culture globally. Author of Cannabis Legacy Chronicles and former communications director for a leading minority cannabis trade association, she helps businesses transform their stories into strategic content driving measurable growth.
Article sponsored by: Linda Solana is a seasoned entrepreneur with 30-plus years of experience and the owner of CannaVibes Dispensary and K9 Nanni. She empowers women entrepreneurs through practical leadership insights, disciplined business strategy and a community-first approach to building sustainable, purpose-driven brands.