Starting Your Turf Career

Where do I start? How much experience do I need? How do I approach a new opportunity? Can I transfer any of my skills to apply to a turfgrass management career?...

We have readers who are 19, and we have readers who are 39. The people are very different but the first step will be the same for everyone:

1. Understand where you fit in the turf facility hierarchy (employment level)

2. Develop and gather application materials (resume/cover letter)

3. Review available options

4. Apply and begin the conversation

This is precisely where our Blue Program starts, leading you towards the right path for your future. The journey of a thousand miles may begin with one step, but a misstep early in this working world can set you back years.

Where we deliver is in helping you identify the right fit for you. In other industries, job ads can be largely uniform, experience requirements can be standardized, skills can be standardized, and the working environment can be somewhat expectable/predictable. In turfgrass management, however, there is little in the way of corporate management firms and workplace standards that are uniform across all facilities.

We walk you through employment levels, and the casts of characters you are likely to run into along the way. Factors affecting your job search can vary between environmental regions, public or private facilities, local shops or international event hosts, or even specialist roles available. While turf managers are expected to work outdoors, that also adds a vat amount of variables to consider as well.

If you are starting completely from scratch with little knowledge of turf - good for you, and welcome to TGC!- one thing you will inevitably learn about in your studies are hardiness zones, and how specific plants thrive in different settings.

You can consult this map to help understand what plants will succeed, given the specific conditions present across regions of the US. Our Blue Program similarly helps to identify your professional zone of comfort, in which you will find the most success and growth for your career. This will change person to person, and even across a single person's age, as values and circumstances change over time.

What is important is finding a proper landing spot for yourself, and doing everything you can to prepare for the hiring process. We will help you write you cover letter and resume, along with providing examples of each. We build your readiness in what to be prepared to talk about, how to present yourself, and how to interview your workplace as well. You need to be able to be as much of your true self as possible to make the most of learning experiences and limit any apprehension about showing up ready each day.

Once you find your zone, performing through the hiring process and acquiring some options, we will help you further evaluate these to find the best match. Accepting an offer and hitting your new ground running, we offer a comprehensive guide to help make the most of these early years. We call it our Internship Plan, but it can be used for your first year on the job, or as a handy check-list as a senior manager. The key is in periodically pausing to reflect and recenter, to eliminate losing your place and losing valuable years of your life.

Hard hours in the fields and fairways need to deliver an amount of opportunity and experience that measures equal to the effort you are putting in. Don't blink after a few years and realize you aren't in better position to get promoted than you were when you started.

There is a great quote about traveling where writer Lillian Smith says, "No journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within." This applies to your new career path as well. It's best you learn that now...

As you grow, we can coach you into being open to new and varied experiences. God knows we have stories of embracing variation in our own careers early and often... You need to understand that now is the time for saying yes, taking on challenges, jumping with both feet into the unknown to cultivate experiences that will not only set you apart in future hiring processes, but fill you with the confidence you will rely on in the future, when the unexpected inevitably arises. The most steadfast senior leader relies not only on their current experiences, but the times they spent at the ground level as a staff member or intern.

Come with us to learn more about this stage of your life in TGC's Blue Program.

At $9, it is designed to be as if you are buying us a beer at the bar and talking about where and how to start.

Pull up a chair and let's chat...