The interview process between a job-seeking candidate and a search committee can be one of the most inefficient communication exchanges known to man. Otherwise qualified but interview-inexperienced candidates often do not present themselves well in this typically tense and highly-structured sit-around-the-table interview format, and search committees often lack the in-depth knowledge to ask the discerning questions needed to identify the better candidates.

Is there a better way? Fortunately, there is. Switch the initial interview session from the traditional meeting room (where the search committee has all the leverage) outside to the golf course — on “your turf”, where your knowledge reigns supreme and can’t be encumbered by well-intentioned but misdirected laymen’s questioning.

Switch the initial interview session from the traditional meeting room (where the search committee has all the leverage) outside to the golf course…

Once invited to interview, you can accomplish this change in venue by requesting that search committee members tour the golf course and maintenance facilities with you for the purpose of mutually identifying and discussing core issues. The benefits of this interview scenario are:

1. The tight time pressure normally associated with sit-down interviews is eliminated – ensuring a deeper exchange of ideas.
2. Rather than having to formulate theoretical technical questions ahead of time, the lay search committee members would simply have to point out on-course issues and ask you to identify causes and recommend solutions. This is the best opportunity you could have to demonstrate know-how, communication skills and personal command.

Granted, you may have to “sell” the concept of the initial on-course interview to search committees because of the relative novelty of the concept. Some search committees will no doubt counter that having you tour the course with the outgoing superintendent should suffice.

You should respectfully counter this suggestion while keeping it alive because while a tour with the exiting superintendent is always helpful, it does not set the stage for a formal interview as effectively as an on-course tour with committee members would. After an on-course initial “interview”, all parties come to the interview table relaxed, knowing each other’s personality traits, able to confirm or challenge comments and conversations previously discussed on the golf course tour, and free to explore new horizons beyond that which the traditional interview venue allows — to the benefit of the search committee and particularly to you, the candidate.

Comments are invited.

It has become increasingly difficult for golf course superintendents to advance vertically within the job market because 1) the somewhat infrequent better job openings routinely attract from 75 to 100+ qualified applicants, 2) as few as five interviews are generally scheduled per job opening, and 3) the better candidates are often not identified through the search process.

Discouraging? Absolutely. We are left to conclude that the same “glass ceiling” that women have fought for years when attempting to climb the corporate job ladder exists today within the golf course superintendent job market. Unfortunately, too many superintendents accept this circumstance and, accordingly, risk job boredom and ultimate job loss. The following four-step action plan is designed to help you address this problem:

Step # 1: Develop an effective personal career web site. Statistics show that while only 15% (a growing percentage) of job applicants reference a personal career web site – roughly 50% of invitations to interview go to candidates with web sites. (See good examples at www.stevenrenzetti.com and www.tavishorton.com

Step # 2: Add golf course construction jobs to your job seeking radar screen. While standard superintendent job openings constantly attract upwards of 100 applications, construction superintendent job openings routinely attract less than five applicants. (More on this subject in coming weeks.)

Step # 3: Whether an assistant or a superintendent, consistently aim high (i.e., at higher status golf courses than your present job) when seeking a job. A strategically-orchestrated career path commands the respect of search committees and at the same time imparts the weight and credibility of the higher profile club/course to your resume once hired. Job pedigree will always be a primary determinant of whether you will be interviewed or not.

Job pedigree will always be a primary determinant of whether you will be interviewed or not…

Step #4: Out-prepare the competition when applying for a job. Experience indicates that 95% of candidates are less than 50% prepared to effectively compete for jobs. (More on this issue in the coming months.)

While not guaranteeing a job, the above four-step program will virtually assure you of a thorough time “at bat” when applying for the better jobs.

Comments welcome.

Myth: Golf course superintendents who consistently allow their work schedules to stretch (i.e., default) to 60- and 70-hour workweeks are perceived to be pursuing a work ethic that commands respect and will help ensure their job security.

This is a dangerous myth because the vast majority of those employing superintendents are successful, private-sector executives who expect the managers they hire and work with every day to be effective within standard work-hour days and weeks. In the private sector world (where board and green committee members are generally employed), workaholics are looked at as weak managers who don’t delegate or hire well. I assure you this is the way that golf course superintendents lacking schedule discipline are generally perceived by many of their employers.

While this workaholic perception is not enough to cost superintendents their jobs per se, it does reduce the job security margin of error normally given superintendents. In other words, from the time that superintendents are judged to be accepting of open-ended workweek schedules their job security moves from being otherwise safe to a slippery slope because their management effectiveness will always be less than it should be.

Conversely, superintendents who delegate well and, accordingly, are able to work effectively within a standard work-hour week often get a one-time free “get out of jail” card to insure job security should they screw-up down the road. Lesson to be learned: it is virtually impossible to work an efficient work-hour week without delegating effectively. Therefore, learn to delegate early in your career.

Superintendents who delegate well and, accordingly, are able to work effectively within a standard work-hour week often get a one-time free “get out of jail” card…

Allowing for unexpected emergencies and bad weather, the sooner superintendents learn to delegate effectively and, therefore, are able to become more efficient managers within the standard work-hour week, the sooner they will:

• Be respected as true professionals;
• Enhance their job security;
• Balance their lives to become better spouses and parents to their children; i.e.- the best incentive of them all.

Not surprisingly, workaholic superintendents eventually burn out and go the other way… thus the truism that younger golf course superintendents delegate too little while veteran superintendents delegate too much. Family stability and job security are not compatible with workaholic schedules.

“Superintendents, want to help your assistant(s) on their career path? Print out these Career Corner posts and responses on an ongoing basis and assemble them in a hard copy binder for your assistants and crew.”

Our country’s economy is in serious trouble and the President is telling America that things will get worse before they get better.  Accordingly, some of the country’s private golf clubs and daily fee courses could be facing austerity budgeting next year, or soon after. If your club board or daily fee owner asked you, as the golf course superintendent of record, to draft a 2010 austerity maintenance operating budget for your golf course, what would the final product look like and how far would you go to cut expense spending?

(FYI: Municipal golf courses probably will not have a need for austerity budgeting because the Obama stimulus bill has directed billions of dollars to states and municipalities.)

Anticipating the possible need for austerity budget drafting at some future time, rough out a preliminary 2010 austerity operating budget draft, using your 2009 operating budget as a baseline, to estimate what level of austerity budget-cutting you believe your course could absorb and still remain playable. (When this exercise is complete, submit your budget-cutting estimate to the poll on the right.)

Austerity Budget Drafting Guidelines:

1. Assume that your austerity budget would minimize crew size, bunker care, mowing frequency, cutting patterns, multiple cutting heights through the green, water usage (be firm and think brown) and cultural practices but must do so without endangering the long term viability of the putting surfaces and the playability of the golf course; i.e.- maintain general green quality but at slower speeds, while not allowing course conditioning to fall to a point where playing golf would not be enjoyed.
2. Accept that your golf course would lose its pristine look within an austerity budget program but, nevertheless, must still remain playable.
3.  Assume that your job will depend on how deep you can budget-cut while still maintaining reasonable golf course playability. Use comment opportunity below to share your core/creative thinking re: this matter.

Make this exercise a good self-teaching moment for future reference.

Roughly 75% of PGA members and over 80% of CMAA members work with the protection of (multi-year) written employment contracts. Conversely, only 21% of golf course superintendents enjoy the protection of written contracts. The reality of the situation is that four of five GCSAA members face a double obstacle when looking to borrow money to buy a traditional home, or a family car –  i.e., lending institutions do not honor verbal contracts or “year-to-year” agreements, which all verbal contracts are by definition.

Then, do we have to remind ourselves of the devastation wrought when superintendents without written contract protection get summarily dismissed from their jobs (estimated @ 400-plus times each year country-wide) simply because they can be? As a consequence, families face the loss of primary income; mortgage payments and children’s college tuition fees are put in jeopardy; employer-provided housing is quickly term-limited virtually putting families out on the street; family health coverage fades; children will have to change school systems; anxiety mounts throughout the family; and finally, dismissed superintendents face the daunting task of seeking their next job without strong employer support. Can there be any greater trauma forced on good families? Not likely.

Of course, the present-day economy seriously aggravates all of the above. See my most recent blog, “Anticipating Austerity” (with comments) for guidelines to minimize job vulnerability in a bad economy.

What Steps Need To Be Taken?

Step #1: Read my October 2007 Golf Course Industry column to see how: (i) individual superintendents; (ii) GCSAA chapters; and (iii) GCSAA itself can effectively address this matter.

Step #2: Ask your Chapter to constructively lobby GCSAA to take the lead addressing this matter.

Step #3: Use button at the bottom of this page (you may have to hit the HOME tab on the menubar first) to e-mail this post to peer, chapter delegates and members of Chapter Boards across the country.

Step #4: Participate in the survey poll to the right because the greater the response the more weight behind this campaign.

The concept that every superintendent should have the right to earn a written contract is a realizable goal, but one that should be collectively pursued now because if this matter is allowed to stand in these continuing to decline economic times – thousands of superintendents’ jobs will be put unnecessarily in jeopardy in the coming years.

Superintendents, want to help your assistant(s) on their career path? Print out these Career Corner posts and responses on an ongoing basis and assemble them in a hard copy binder for your assistants and crew.

April 15, 2009 marked the 62nd anniversary of the day Jackie Robinson played his first game as a Brooklyn Dodger… and by doing so broke the color barrier in professional baseball and made the sport, for the first time, truly America’s game.

Jackie Robinson lived by a set of values that guided his career and path through life. These nine values were:

Citizenship

Commitment

Courage

Determination

Excellence

Integrity

Justice

Persistence

Teamwork

Robinson also once said, “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”  I believe this is the single most important concept we parents can pass down to our children. See the poll to the right to identify what value you feel will most effectively guide you through life.

Traditionally, golf course superintendents have used the cover letter when applying for jobs in a very perfunctory manner; i.e.- to make search committees aware of their candidacies and to ask for an interview. This superficial use of the cover letter negates a candidate’s first and foremost opportunity to take the initiative, which is what job applications are all about. For example, following are sample profiles of the several key paragraphs within a cover letter that clearly demonstrate taking the initiative:

First Paragraph:
In about 75 words of your own choosing provide information relative to your present job, your career ambition and why you have a specific interest in applying for this job. Also, provide your personal career web site address because this is the single element that best demonstrates a candidate’s initiative. Remember that about half of job interviews are granted to candidates with quality career web sites. (See Step #1 within my earlier archived blog entitled, “Breaking Through The Glass Ceiling” for guidance in developing your own web site.)

Following Paragraphs: (Initially use the approximate italicized language below; then end with a traditional closing paragraph.)

Should I be granted the privilege of an interview, I respectfully request that the following documentation be made available to me before interviewing; i.e.- copies of:

* The current and recent years’ department operating/capital maintenance budgets.
* Recent years’ OSHA/safety records, labor records and department job descriptions.
* An aged maintenance equipment inventory with maintenance records.
* Recent years’ USGA Turf Advisory Service reports; irrigation system profile data; and listings of cultural practice concepts/schedules.

Finally, I would welcome the opportunity to tour the golf course property with members of the search committee before my formal interview. Having access to the above requested information, combined with a committee-guided interactive tour of the golf course and maintenance facility would equip me to submit a definitive multi-year “Plan Of Action” to the search committee prior to my interview.

(See my earlier archived blog entitled, “Stress Free Job Interviews” for further insight into the matter of committee guided pre-interview tours of the golf course.)

A cover letter containing the above initiatives (including a quality web site address) will virtually guarantee an interview. Conversely, passive cover letters fail to ignite candidacies.

Superintendents, want to help your assistant(s) on their career path? Print out these Career Corner posts and responses on an ongoing basis and assemble them in a hard copy binder for your assistants and crew.

The vast majority of golf course superintendents manage their careers like an unguided missile (once aimed at firing time the missile’s course can’t be changed) rather than as a guided missile, where the missile’s course can be constantly fine-tuned/changed during flight to ensure hitting the designated target (in our case, optimum secure employment).

For example, unless superintendents: (i) identify career defining issues early on (e.g. job sequence; job durations; the value of working in the public sector or for contract management companies; web site development; the benefit of pedigree jobs to a career; the importance of salary versus the quality of a job; to publish or not; setting a personal standard of job performance, etc.); (ii) monitor the development of issue-driven career paths through life; and (iii) make appropriate career path corrections as circumstances suggest – their careers may be seriously compromised. But, few realize this.

The most effective (only) way you can ensure that you will stay on top of these career-developing issues is to ask yourself once or twice every year the rhetorical question: “Where do I want my career to be in five years?” As you re-ask and re-answer this question through the years, you will learn to re-direct your career paths as circumstances warrant – thereby sustaining a constantly evolving dynamic career strategy.

At each of the approximate 75 Career Planning workshops I have presented to golf course superintendents over the last 25 years, I ask how many attendees routinely ask this five year career-defining question of themselves. To this day, I am still both surprised and disappointed to see that less than 10% of superintendents formally query themselves about their future career planning.

I then ask the natural follow-up question, “How many attendees, at this point in their lives, feel they will be able to realize the career goals they initially identified for themselves?” Roughly, the same 10% of attendees answer in the affirmative – while the balance of attendees identify disappointedly with an important teaching moment.

Golf course superintendents who fail to ask themselves where they want their careers to be at fixed points in their lives will be eliminating the best their careers have to offer – without knowing it.

Ask and you shall receive.

Superintendents, want to help your assistant(s) on their career path? Print out these Career Corner posts and responses on an ongoing basis and assemble them in a hard copy binder for your assistants and crew.