Winter Career and Technology Checklist
Entry posted by Matt Leverich
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For many of you winter is the only time you are able to really spend much time in the office. So, I thought I would include a few things we've covered at different times over the last several years that you can take action on now... when you actually have some time for it. By doing these tasks, you'll quickly be on the road to advancing your career and technology skills for the next challenge your career faces.
Acquire Photography of Your Course
If you haven't had any images taken of your great course conditions, now is the time to schedule it for 2018. This above article outlines why professional photography is a MUST for your career. I cant stress this enough, such a critical component to outstanding career materials to showcase.
Consider this as a New Year's resolution or simply as a gift to yourself and your staff: create a set of SOPs (standard operating procedures) for course set up. This document of procedures can be distributed to your green chairman and his committee, to the golf staff and caddie group if you have a caddie program.
This can't be repeated enough -- you need to get out of your comfort zone and network with those outside of turf. Golfers, GMs, even accountants and realtors. Anything you can do to create a more diverse network helps your odds of cashing in on a connection at another club who may be hiring. Talking to superintendents is great, but for finding a head GCS role there is way more value in various club members, GMs, golf pros and the like.
Just in my last article I highlighted the need to be knowledgeable in golf, which is related to this topic. Its worth revisiting if you missed it:
Add Technology to Your Operation
I dont have a specific article to link to here, but the last several years advances in industry software have really made it easy to save time, labor and money in your operation. The cost of the software is usually easily offset by your time savings. Plus many club controllers/CFOs are leading the charge to include more analytics in your operation. I am getting more calls from them weekly so best to be ahead of the curve here.
There are many leading options for various functions of your operation. Some of the ones I have experience with and can recommend are Playbooks Coverage System, ASB TaskTracker, TurfCloud, ezPins, POGO, and of course the updated Toro and RainBird irrigation suites.
A career website is rarely used at one's current club, but it should be! Most golfers or members at your club have no idea what you have done, where you have worked or even that you went to college for this most-demanding industry position. Instead of leaving them in the dark about you, a better strategy is to actively educate them on your career and what you have done at the club and other clubs. In addition, I have been working on a new platform that serves to promote you much easier with golfers, called Conditions App. Youll be hearing more on this in 2018 as it releases fully from Beta.
As much as I think that people know about saving websites as apps to their Android or iOS devices, the more I am wrong about it. At least half of the demos I provide for Coverage System, one of the club staff doesn't know how to do this. So this is a very good article to check out because TurfNet works very well on your device and makes it easier to stay up to date on the industry. Plus, once you know the process for TurfNet, it can work for any other website as well.
With a little help from a designer, you can easily create a powerful document that can serve as letterhead, cover letter and even a customized notecard for hand-written notes. And yes, that is still a lost art that is totally underutilized. Check out my article on that here.
It you are venturing out in the job market on your own, be sure to utilize these strategies and tips included in the article. I didnt include anything on building a career website. Which you should. But that is an ongoing series and too many to list here. If you need help getting started on one, Im happy to offer some guidelines.
Best of luck in 2018 and thanks for reading!!
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