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Matt Leverich: Career & Technology Interchange

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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.

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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

January 7, 2016

1

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

November 17, 2015

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Great Resource for All Things 'Job Search'

In my continued role with the MetGCSA and their website management, I have seen some really great information and I am sure other chapters across the country have similar educational endeavors. However, this month the Met has put together a very comprehensive newsletter article that I think is worthy of more exposure as it is applicable to anyone searching for a new position. On this blog, we cover career materials -- resumes, cover letters, websites, print portfolios, etc., and how to buil

October 7, 2015

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Take Action This Month!

For many of you summer is crazy busy and full of nothing but work on the course. So naturally many of your other endeavors regarding your career and even using communication tools and resources like TurfNet can get put on the backseat. So, I thought I would revisit a few things we've covered recently that make this month a great chance to take action on them. Acquire Photography of Your Course If you haven't had any images taken of your great course conditions this season, now is your

September 2, 2015

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Diversify Your Reference List

One major issue seems to come up in the vast majority of references -- no diversification! What does this mean? Well, most only list their peers (superintendents) on their references page. While this might be a good idea for finding an assistant position, it really is not the best approach for a superintendent opening, particularly if you are applying blind with no connections to the hiring club. Listing your peers may prove that you know or come recommended by industry veterans, but it doe

July 22, 2015

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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

June 23, 2015

2

Website Series: Professional Photography for Your Course & Career

While building career materials projects throughout the years, one key component is typically missing from them: excellent photography. The kind that can showcase just how great your course conditions can be. Very few guys have quality when it comes to this most important area, maybe one or two nice shots taken by amateurs. Hiring a professional photographer is a fantastic way to instantly create a bigger and better impression of your work. The difference in quality of images can be quite d

May 20, 2015

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Finding Staff: H2B Visa Process Details (Part 2)

Guest Post by Frank Duda, Golf Course Superintendent at Miacomet Golf Club, Nantucket, MA With so many courses looking for staff and the impending possible issues with the H2B Visa program, I thought it was interesting to include an actual example of a course using H2B workers and how it the entire process operates. It is fairly complex and due to worker caps you have to start early for the next year's workers. So now is the time to learn about it, figure out if it is right for you and head

April 21, 2015

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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

March 24, 2015

7

Website Series: Use career materials at your current club

Career websites have become increasingly popular over the last 6-7 years and I can tell you authoritatively that they work very well to increase your odds of attaining an interview or call back when you otherwise are not acquiring them. Print portfolios also have extremely valuable use during the interview process, leaving a professional and lasting impression with the hiring committee. I have way too many stories of past clients' success in the arena for anyone to discount this fact. So if you

February 27, 2015

0

GIS 2015 Career & Technology...

With the upcoming GIS in San Antonio, I thought it would be a good idea to discuss a few things related to careers and technology that are part of the week or worth checking out. Even if you aren't attending, with the internet you can access nearly all of the information from your computer. First of all, I'll be there for the entire week, leaving my office and computer for once. While it's a busy week of events, I really hope to visit with as many of you as possible. In addition to the Turf

February 13, 2015

0

Inbox Zero for Superintendents

Several months ago I was introduced to the idea of "inbox zero" developed by Merlin Mann, as I looked for a better way to handle email. With Playbooks for Golf working for more and more of you, my productivity on projects was being continually eroded by a constant stream of emails coming in for all kinds of reasons and requests. My inbox kept getting bigger and bigger with emails I needed for reminders, project notes and direction, software support, and more. I had to do something and inbox zero

January 15, 2015

0

Impact of a Handwritten Note, Again

It's that time of year -- sending holiday cards to friends and family, spending more time at home and thinking of others are all things that make the holidays unique. And while it is very important to do what's mentioned, it is just as critical to think about your professional network and how you can improve upon it for the coming new year, as you never know what may be in store. This provides an opportunity to reach out to your network of peers, club officials, members, and more, because most w

December 15, 2014

0

Smart Board Update: Now Easier Than Ever

While writing this blog I try to keep the past materials I've written as up-to-date as possible for a strong resource archive, which can be difficult when it comes to the technology stuff we sometimes cover here. One of the tutorials I wrote last year -- setting up a "smart board" for your operation -- provided a step-by-step guide to doing it with ease. At the time, the best way to pull this off was to purchase an AppleTV and a piece of software called AirParrot, especially if you were on

November 22, 2014

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Contracts: An In-the-Know Barrister's View

Speaking with many superintendents and industry professionals this past year, a recurring theme always seems to spark interest -- employment contracts. In fact, Jim McLoughlin just touched on them in the past few months on his TurfNet blog. My business partner, Greg Wojick, also recently published a thorough article on them in the MetGCSA's Tee to Green newsletter. It provides quite a bit of research and interviews from superintendents, TurfNet founder Peter McCormick, Bruce Williams, McLoughlin

October 30, 2014

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A Year of Blogging: Top 5 Posts to Review

Time flies. I can't believe I have been writing for TurfNet now for just over a year. I've enjoyed offering advice on careers and technology and hope anyone who has read the blog receives value in some way from it as that is the goal -- to help others in the turf industry. Because we are all pulled in different directions constantly and content is everywhere, I thought it might be a good time to recap and highlight the five key articles I wrote in this past year that would bring the most va

October 8, 2014

0

Website Series: Taking the Right First Step

This is the first in a series on building career websites for the turf industry. We will cover all aspects of content, page building, imagery, and more. Let's start with some facts. There is still a bottleneck at the top of our industry in trying to attain a Superintendent position at a quality club. If you are applying blind to a position where you have no connections to the club at all, a standard cover letter and resume will not get it done. With dozens upon dozens of applicants, you hav

September 19, 2014

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

August 29, 2014

0

Podcast on Career Materials

I was recently given the opportunity to sit down for an interview for a podcast on career materials with fellow TurfNet member Randy VanderVaate. Randy is currently the Vice President of Agronomy at Century/Palmer Golf and creates a weekly podcast to provide superintendents with a discussion on varying topics that will help grow their lives and careers to the next level. I've known Randy for years now and he is always trying to help those in the industry and give back where he can, so I was happ

August 5, 2014

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

July 16, 2014

0

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

June 26, 2014

0

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

June 4, 2014

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

May 15, 2014

0

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

May 1, 2014

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

April 14, 2014

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