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About this blog

Matt Leverich (and guests) from Playbooks for Golf blogs on tips and techniques for using technology to advance your operation and career.

Entries in this blog

Tech tip: Image headers in Word for a professional look

I would estimate that close to 100% of superintendents have and use Microsoft Word for creating various documents for use around your clubs, and personally as well. While there are limitations to the software, one thing that works great is how it handles headers. There is a little bit of process to it, but in the end you can have a very nicely designed document that you can then edit on your own.    Let's say that you have had TurfNet design a header for your blog and you'd like to use i
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

1

Finding Staff: H2B Visa Program (Part 1)

Guest Post by Frank Duda, Golf Course Superintendent at Miacomet Golf Club, Nantucket, MA While not perfectly related to career materials or technology, I thought it was interesting enough to include on this blog due to the potential importance of it in some of your operations, especially with it being in the news recently. The second post on how to streamline and manage the process will be coming in the next blog. I hope this offers insight to you and thanks to Frank Duda for writing this
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

7

Guest Post: The Assistant Superintendent Role Reconsidered

by Greg Wojick Looking through the assistant superintendent job listings on the TurfNet Job board the other day reinforced in my mind that the superintendent's approach to their assistants' positions may need some rethinking.  For years and decades, superintendents handled their assistants by hiring young, letting them learn by doing and observing, and then, after a year or two on the job, sending them on their way to their first superintendent's job. 'Two years and out' was the typica
Greg Wojick, CGCS

Greg Wojick, CGCS

3

Top 8 Considerations for Your Resume

In addition to the normal questions I receive regarding resumes this time of year there has also been quite a bit of chatter about them in the TurfNet Forum, at GIS, and other industry channels. Last fall, I put together a very comprehensive article on resumes that covered many topics. It is quite lengthy, so I figured I would create a condensed Top 8 list for quick reference. Here is the original article if you want to get into the why on some of this stuff. A true resume is one page in
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

2

SET UP A CREW “SMART BOARD” WITH EASE

Many turf managers ask us for a suggested "smart board" setup for crew training, assignments and other uses at their facility. A smart board is a digital device used to display information to your crew. Essentially, you use your office computer or tablet tied to a projector or TV in the crew room area. There are many different ways to do this, but for the purpose of this post we are going to show you one of the easiest, cheapest, and most versatile setups. For around $500, you can get set up wit
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

1

Career Tip: It's Overrated — Obsessing on Lengthy Resume Content

Before we begin, a disclaimer on resume advice: Everyone has an opinion on what should be included on a resume, and there's not necessarily a right or wrong approach. If you give your resume to someone for review, they will always come back to you with their own take on what should be highlighted or changed. My recommendations are not the only way to go, they are merely observations and thoughts specific to our industry and how it relates to resume content. It is important is to study the differ
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

2

Good Reminder on Why to Dump Internet Explorer

From USA Today, 4/29/14: The U.S. Department of Homeland security is advising Americans not to use the Internet Explorer Web browser until a fix is found for a serious security flaw that came to light over the weekend. The bug was announced on Saturday by FireEye Research Labs, an Internet security software company based in Milpitas, Calif. It is recommended that users and administrators "consider employing an alternative Web browser until an official update is available." Th
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

2

How To: Create a Link from Resume to Detailed Document

Awhile back I put together some suggestions on creating solid resumes (article here) and received quite a bit of feedback and questions regarding one of the points: A true resume is one page in length and is meant to summarize your career. Create a separate document that has all the extra bullet points, call this a portfolio, career anthology, etc. Create a large link icon or text link to the more lengthy document on the resume. Now you have both options for the hiring person available at t
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

0

Rethinking the Superintendent Search

Guest post by Greg Wojick, Playbooks for Golf -- I recently visited the CMAA (Club Managers Association of America) website. One of the first things I noticed was that more than two dozen executive search firms were listed.   I looked further, scanning many of the search firm sites. I saw that there were numerous searches for general managers, most often referred to as COOs and occasionally CEOs. I also saw searches for assistant general managers, executive chefs, directors of
Greg Wojick, CGCS

Greg Wojick, CGCS

2

Reminder for cover letters...

Over the last several weeks it seems that quite a few job opportunities have come along across the country and I have been receiving many requests on how to handle cover letters for these opportunities. So for those out there that are interested, here is a point-by-point tutorial on crafting a cover letter to your advantage that I wrote last year as a solid reminder heading into your next opportunity. There are countless articles and tips out there about writing an effective cover letter ac
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

0

Keeping Pace With the Age of Technology - Guest post by Greg Wojick

Several weeks ago, I had lunch with the vice president of Arccos Golf, a startup company that has developed technology intended to help golfers improve their games. The system they came up with allows the golfer to use the data created by each swing of the golf club (sensors are attached to the club) to identify weaknesses and strengths -- among many other useful data points -- like quantifying the percentage of time that your approach shots miss the greens to the right or to the left of the fla
Greg Wojick, CGCS

Greg Wojick, CGCS

1

Network with More Golfers, Not Peers...

Continuing with the theme of 'preparing now for career opportunities later' I started in my last article, consider this: Spend more time networking and playing golf with members and business people instead of your superintendent peers. Why do I say instead of your peers? Because your free time is extremely limited and you have to put effort where it will be most valuable to your career opportunities. I am not saying to abandon colleague communication at all, I mean we are all on TurfNe
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

0

Organize with technology...

A new year is upon us, and I thought it would be a good time to review some things in tech that we can start out fresh with at the beginning of this year. The key with using technology in your job is to not let it overtake you and keep you from managing the course properly. With a few of these suggestions you should be able to harness the power of tech without many of the side-effects. Wunderlist The first step for most people to get organized is to start making lists. This solution could
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

1

How To: Using TurfNet & Forum as Webapp from Devices

Recently a thread in the Forum was started relating to its use, and I offered some advice on mobile devices. I really enjoy viewing TurfNet from my iPhone due to the mobile version of TurfNet, which I had saved as a Webapp. In fact, it makes browsing the Forum just as easy as pulling up the Twitter app and viewing my feed from others in the industry. After thinking about this, I thought I would put together a tutorial in case very few out there knew about it. If you already use it, great... If n
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

0

How to Use Cover Letters to Your Advantage

There are countless articles and tips out there about writing an effective cover letter across many industries. What works and what doesn't in our industry? It varies with every club but there are some basic guidelines to work from that give you the best chance for success. So, here's a list of things to consider when writing an effective cover letter in the golf maintenance world.   Write a cover letter! You might think this is par for the course, but many in our industry do not even include
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

0

THE DANGERS OF AN ONLINE PRESENCE (though it’s still worth it)

If you're reading this, you know that online technology has allowed us in the turf industry to share good things like tips, tricks and maintenance practices.  But it can also impact your ability to retain your existing position or get that new job. How you craft and manage your online presence can be a boon or a bust to your operation and career.  FACEBOOK A hotly debated issue of late is companies asking prospective hires for access to social media such as Facebook, or to like the company or
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

0

Rethink Your Lengthy Portfolio

The following information pertains to portfolios as documents like a PDF, Word file, or other printable file type or digital file that must be scrolled like a document. This does not include online portfolios on websites. After years of work looking over and/or building superintendent portfolios and the results produced, one item consistently appears in feedback from hiring personnel on DIY portfolios: The content is too long! I've written before about keeping your resume as sh
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

0

The Confusing Use of Your Full Name

This is one of those posts that there's not a cut and dry solution for every situation, but rather recommendations based on feedback from hiring professionals and potential employees. It happens often enough that I thought it worthy of a post. It is commonplace in most professional industries to use your full first name on your resume, cover letter, website and other career materials. Some even use the middle name initial or "junior, III, IV," etc. The main idea is that people think it make
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

2

DIY job application basics...

Over the course of the last several years I have covered different aspects of creating good career materials. From tips on resumes to hiring professionals to create your personal brand through websites and portfolios, we have covered a lot of material. And I intend to cover much more in the future. However, I've never compiled any kind of resource to some basics on job applications - your cover letter, resume and references. So, here are some links to what I consider the baseline must-haves
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

0

Adjusting Turf Resumes for the Mobile Age

I don’t have to tell any of you that smartphones have changed how we work each day, especially from out on the course. From chem/fert apps like Coverage, to Twitter and labor software, there have been vast improvements to the daily operation because of mobile devices. It doesn’t just stop with our side of the industry. Any hiring person at a club or firm is now extremely likely to view your resume the first time from their phone while on the move. What does that mean? You had better be sure
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

2

Export your career documents to PDF...

I have covered this topic very briefly before in a larger article about cover letters, but it's worthwhile to include this as its own feature in our goal of providing excellent and easy to read career materials.  Portable Document Format (PDF) preserves document formatting and enables file sharing. When the PDF format file is viewed online or printed, it retains the content and format that you intended.    Out of all the career files I view each year, over 50% are still sent in a no
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

0

Technology Time Management

Recently I have been working with the MetGCSA in rebuilding their online presence and ran across a great article from their award-winning Tee to Green publication archive. It deals with how technology has both saved and added time to the duties of the golf course superintendent. This started me thinking about the daily routine of today's superintendent. Due to my work I am almost always in front of a computer all day, every day. I see a new technological advancement as saving me time. But f
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

0

Follow Up: The Role of Assistants Today

by Greg Wojick, Playbooks for Golf In my last guest column for TurfNet, I wrote about the role of the assistant superintendent and the need for superintendents to consider rethinking their approach to hiring and retaining these essential contributors to their operations. When I suggested that superintendents work to retain their assistants with training to "work smarter, not harder" and that they provide greater rewards in pay and benefits for their efforts, I predictably received push
Greg Wojick, CGCS

Greg Wojick, CGCS

0

The impact of a handwritten note...

Watching my wife designing holiday cards for clients and friends reminded me of an important topic related to todays modern world: the hand-written note. Yep, when it comes to our industry, it still works, and possibly now more than ever. It can be used in seeking another position or improving your standing with members at your current club. Before we get into it, I'd like to include a snippet of an article from the Harvard Business Review (full article) about the topic that sums it up quite wel
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

0

Don’t Forget About Your Career This Summer

With the "hot 100" days of summer approaching, I thought it would be a good time for a post on preparing now for the inevitable job searching season that follows in the fall and winter. As we all know, the three summer months in most areas of the country are extremely busy on the golf course, demanding long hours and focus on saving turf conditions. Year after year, the same thing always happens come September... a great job opens up and I get a multitude of calls to see how quickly a caree
Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

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