ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — If you’re looking for work, you might be interested in the cannabis career fair happening in Rochester on Wednesday. The event is being held at the RochesterWorks! Career Center in Rochester from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Britni and Jason Tantalo will be there hoping to recruit. They already own Flower City Hydroponics and are hoping to open Flower City Dispensary very soon. They’ve applied for one of the first licenses to legally sell cannabis and meet all the requirements that New York State is looking for. “I mean we get asked all the time just in general life and being in this space, where are the cannabis jobs? Now that there are licensed cultivators and processing facilities and soon-to-be retail dispensing, the jobs are opening,” says Britni Tantalo.

Those already in the cannabis industry are hoping to make some on-the-spot hires. “You’ll have master growers, you’ll have bud technicians, we’ll have sales associates, they’ll be even higher level positions like operations managers, accounting and security available” Tantalo adds.

Most of the businesses at this stage in the process are looking for candidates who’ve traditionally been underserved. “Women, minority women, that’s a huge initiative that we’re pushing we want women to be at the forefront of this industry,” Tantalo says, “definitely anybody that has been a victim of the war on drugs in terms of cannabis.”

The hope is even folks who are currently growing/selling on the elicit market may consider attending. “Sometimes people look at us as a card applicant that’s going on the legal side, that there’s this division and it’s like no there’s respect across-the-board everybody has to make decisions for what’s best for them and stand by what they believe in and their values but our hope is that they would take their knowledge and abilities. a lot of them are very, very good at what they do and come and join on the legal side and be a part of building the infrastructure,” Tantalo says.

The Finger Lakes Cannabis Mini Job Fair is on September 21, 2022, from 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the Rochester Career Center, 276 Waring Road Rochester, NY 14609.