Finding Great Golf Jobs

While the nation’s professional industries continue to shrink and collapse in the seemingly bottomless recession, there is one industry that is actually growing: the golf industry. While golf is not often thought of as a safe haven career track, the numbers speak for themselves: golf is a seventy six billion dollar a year global industry that continues to grow and expand worldwide. In the United States alone there are over two million jobs available in the golf field, and more courses and organizations are hiring individuals with golf management degrees and experience every day. So stop beating your head against a brick wall and take another look at golf jobs; from course manager to professional coach, this field offers way more than you think.

Most people’s experience in the golf industry, if they have any, is as a caddy at their local course when they were in high school or college. While there is no knocking a caddy position (how many of you out there made invaluable business contacts that way?), the field of golf has hundreds of other positions in a variety of areas that make it the perfect industry for just about any type of professional. From accountants to marketing professionals to clothing designers, golf truly has it all. And the best part is that the booming success of the industry makes all jobs under the golf umbrella virtually recession proof.

The trick to selecting and successfully applying to one of the thousands of golf jobs available is knowing how to pitch your resume and communicate in your interviews. The big thing that most people forget when applying for a golf position is that enthusiasm, interest, and a desire to be with and serve people are the most important elements. For most of the jobs (pro golfer or coach excluded), it doesn’t make any difference how good you are at the game, what your handicap is, or if you even know the right rules: a willingness to learn and a good attitude go miles to getting your foot in the door.

Spinning all your previous career experience and education with a slant on service and people interactions is also key. Golf is above all else a very social game, and to be really successful in the field you need to demonstrate that you understand and honor that. This understanding applies even to those who are working behind the scenes; it is a fundamental truism about the game that is essential to being able to work in the industry successfully. Whether you design clothes, do the marketing campaigns, or design the courses, you need to be ready to perform every task with the understanding that it is a social game in mind.

But where do you look for these great jobs? You can start by checking your local course, doing searches on popular job board websites, visiting Craigslist, and just asking around. One of the great strengths of the golf industry is that it is a real community; if you ask someone who belongs to a club or plays regularly, they are sure to know some course or company that needs help or will be sure to keep their ears to the ground for you.

So if you’re ready to break out of your withering industry and into a booming one, think about researching golf jobs. Ask anyone who is already in the field, and they’ll tell you that you will be glad you did!