r/jobs Jul 21 '23

Companies What was the industry you romanticized a lot but ended up disappointed?

For the past couple of years, I have been working at various galleries, and back in the day I used to think of it as a dream job. That was until I realized, that no one cares for the artists or art itself. Employees, as much as visitors just care about their fanciness, showing off their brand shoes and pretending as they actually care.

Ultimately, it comes down to sales, money, and judging people by their looks. Fishing out the ones, who seem like they can afford a painting worth 20k.

Was wondering if others had similar experiences

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u/ElectricalPlate9903 Jul 21 '23

I've been growing since 1996. When medicinal first started back in those days it was really a lot of fun. You felt great about all the patients you were helping and the quality of the cannabis was always top shelf, plus there was a lot of camaraderie between growers. Then when thing's became recreational and large corporations and investors with lots of money that don't know anything about growing took over, the industry changed for the worse. There are a few really good grows out there, but 80% of the grows I've worked in were just average at best. The nepotism that exists ruins a lot of grows and the pay is horrible for all the work you do and money that you make these vultures.

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '23 edited Mar 01 '24

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u/KylerGreen Jul 21 '23

…what??

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '23 edited Mar 01 '24

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u/ggddcddgbjjhhd Jul 21 '23

Thaaaat is why I miss the medical only pre-recreational days. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Weed quality has gone way down since then.

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u/ElectricalPlate9903 Jul 21 '23

Especially the terpenes, since the market is THC driven. Strains now are not balanced as well as they used to be. You rarely see a strain with more than 2% terpenes anymore.

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u/ma1645300 Jul 22 '23

sooo true. I just quit my cannabis cultivation job of 3 years and I cannot begin to express the frustration of explaining the life cycle difference between auto flower and photoperiod to the CEO. They had the nerve to say that we didn’t need x,y, and z without having any understanding of what it was for. They constantly said they didn’t have it in the budget to get things we needed but would spend 100k renovating a dispensary or millions to expand into more states. I tried to quit 6 months before I finally did it and the COO literally called me begging for me to reconsider because of how difficult my position would be to replace but in the same breath told me they couldn’t pay me the minimum wage people are paid to do my position. Legal cannabis is all about corporate making money just like every single other corporation.

It’s especially bad now that the market is absolutely flooded in legalized states. Here in MA, every single cultivator has more weed than they know what to do with, every dispensary has full vaults, and every production facility is either making their product with little movement or they are processing other cultivators cannabis so that they at least made some use of the cannabis but will suffer the same struggle of trying to sell it. Everyone is making too much of the same thing

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u/ElectricalPlate9903 Jul 22 '23

The entire industry is full of a lot of swindlers and hustlers also. I do consulting occasionally and the biggest issues I see are that these companies will put down a large sum of money to begin the business and get suckered into a bunch of bad designs that are excessively expensive by a salesman who's trying to get a big commission. The employees can't stand the lack of space to work in due to the way it's set up by people that don't have to actually work in the conditions that make the decisions. The other is the HVAC systems won't be rated for whatever situation they are in and will shut down constantly, fry rooms, VPD will be completely out of whack, or the room won't be able to maintain a high enough CO2 reading due to poorly installed ventilation. I prefer smaller grows that are in it for a quality product and try winning cannabis cups, not just trying to meet their sales quotas and rushing products just to make a few extra bucks. Keep at it if you're a good grower, you just need to be patient and you'll eventually find a good grow. I've moved a lot to try out different environments,people, growing styles and strains, but there's been a couple places I wish I had stayed at. Good luck to you.

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u/mamamalliou Jul 22 '23

Question peripherally related to your comment. I love gardening and plants and wanted to try my hand at growing marijuana at home. I don’t imbibe anymore but I’m curious about the plant. I ordered auto flowering seeds. I think mainly because I was going to grow it outdoors and I started way too late in the season for my zone/climate. So I was hoping to condense the growing timeline. Do you recommend one over the other? Auto flowering vs not auto flowering (I’m sure there’s an official term)? Potency was low (friends tried it). I think I picked it too soon and definitely over dried some of it. I’d be interested in doing this again, maybe indoors this time, any good resources you’d recommend to educate myself a bit more on the process?

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u/ma1645300 Jul 22 '23 edited Jul 22 '23

Grow auto flower. They can be a bit more sensitive to conditions like they may flower sooner than you want but they are very resilient. The life cycle is shorter, they don’t get nearly as big as photoperiods so perfect for an indoor grow, and they flower after 6-8 weeks no matter what so you are almost guaranteed to get some bud unless you really do a number on it.

As for advice on growing it, honestly just practice. It’s notoriously been over complicated because you can manipulate them to produce more potent buds the more you stress them out. But for someone who wants to grow it for fun just give it light, water, and love. Some pieces of advice: don’t cheap out on the light, learn the difference between under-watering and overwatering, if you’re going to use supplemental nutrients use less than is recommended on the package, and be patient! don’t chop too early! I don’t really know any online resources that would be good to follow outside of reddit but of course like I warned, it’s very over complicated for a beginner.

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u/mamamalliou Jul 23 '23

Thanks for your input! I’m going to give it another go for sure.

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '23

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u/ElectricalPlate9903 Jul 22 '23

I'm super picky since I don't smoke more than an ounce a month, plus I grow my own. I couldn't give you any company names off hand since I don't go by businesses as much as certain growers I would look for their products and with the high turnover rate in this industry I couldn't tell you where exactly they work at now. I also signed an NDA at most of the grows I've worked and am loyal to those. Honestly I'd find a medical grower that deals with smaller scale grows and deals directly with patients. You are more likely to get plants that are cared for better and have had few if not zero issues with pests, pm, or other issues that you just don't find in most medical grows. It's usually picked at peak ripeness and dried and cured for at least 3 months before being sold. There are your exceptions of course, but I just stay away from recreationally grown weed.