The 2011 ASHS Annual Conference

I have worked for private companies in the horticulture industry for many years.  Getting promoted and advancing my career opportunities in other ways was never something I planned for extensively.  Promotion was, however, a consistent goal wherever I worked.  My purpose here is to identify a few primary factors that can help a person get promoted in a private company.  Loyalty is an attitude that most companies greatly appreciate.  Showing loyalty to a company can be a good way to achieve advancement.  As a frequent participant in scientific conferences and business meetings throughout the Americas, I always made sure to keep to myself small criticisms of the companies where I worked.  First, expressing such feelings with others can likely do no good.  And second, a misplaced comment could potentially damage your career.  Identifying opportunities to improve a problematic system or process in a company is another good way to achieve advancement, even if the area for improvement is outside of the normal scope of work for the employee.  Being too risk adverse can hamper progress for a company.  In my opinion the best employees in a company are not adverse to taking prudent risks, but knowing when and how takes experience and extensive knowledge of a subject.

We think that this workshop is relevant to all members of our society, so consider attending even if you are not an industry scientist or looking for a job with a private company.  ASHS wants to encourage industry participation and the society is seeking more members from the private sector.  For this reason it seems appropriate to reach out to ASHS members in the horticulture industry, particularly the younger members who have less career experience.  I think it is also worthwhile to reinforce the idea with university and USDA researchers that the private industry has good careers for all types of horticulturists.