The Level Green Culture Blog

Behind the scenes and insider information for landscaping careers and green industry jobs.

Jose Ruiz grew up in balmy El Salvador, where the temperature hovers at 85 degrees, coconut palms and tropical orchids flourish and he worked in sunny fields harvesting beans and corn.

Then, he moved to Boston. In the winter. And got a job shoveling snow.

What must that have been like?

“Aauuugh!” Jose says.

Totally.

He was 24 at the time, and a pretty sturdy guy. But still.

“There were times I thought, ‘What was I thinking?’” he says with a laugh. “It was very, very hard to acclimate to the weather. But I thought, you know what? I’m here now. I made my decision.”

What do you look for in a new job?

Great pay? Vacation time? A company vehicle to drive?

None of that matters if your employer isn’t growing.

Michael Mayberry, chief technical officer at Level Green Landscaping, has contributed to his company’s steady growth, and sees a lot more of it down the road.

He shares six reasons why joining a growing landscaping company is a key to your career success.

It’s kind of overwhelming to be a brand new account manager at a landscaping company.

So many clients. So many needs.

“Clients realize they don’t know everything about their property’s landscaping, but they expect us to,” says Emilie Roper, account manager at Level Green Landscaping.

Roper graduated with a horticulture degree from Brigham Young University-Idaho, so she knew plenty.

But it was the several months she spent in Level Green Landscaping’s management training program that really set her up for success. She learned on the job how to be an account manager before being promoted to the role, spending time in every department of the growing company.

Student loan debt weighing you down?

Come on board as a management trainee at Level Green Landscaping and we’ll help you pay it off.

The company’s new student loan repayment program will contribute $100 a month toward student loan debt.

If you have to add another task to your already stuffed to-do list, can you find a blank spot?

Here at Level Green Landscaping, we have a lot in common with dogs.

We love big expanses of green grass.

Sometimes, our feet are muddy. We appreciate the scent of open water and scuffling through crisp fall leaves.

We're loyal. We're friendly. We love a good ball chase.

It's probably why a lot of us have dogs. Sometimes they even tag along with us to work, or keep us company in the truck on the way to Home Depot.

We love cats, too, and we're even partial to geckos.

Meet the pets of Level Green Landscaping.

While we love being at work, it's great to come home to these loyal, lovable friends.

The Level Green story starts like a lot of great stories — with an intriguing idea and a conversation over lunch.

In this case, lunch was at Red Lobster. But Bill Hardy and Doug Delano could have been eating peanut butter sandwiches in a truck and still come to the same conclusion: they should start a landscaping company together.

The two friends had worked together for years at a Maryland landscaping company. Doug started out as a laborer and truck driver and worked his way up to supervisor, project manager, area manager and branch manager.

Bill started as assistant supervisor and moved on to be a supervisor, account manager and branch manager.

When Doug decided to start his own business, he immediately thought of Bill as the perfect business partner.

From the beginning, the pair had strong values and high standards.

Unhappy at work?

Too stressed out?

Need a change?

Not sure where to turn after serving in the military?

It could be a perfect mid-career change.How about landscaping?

Here’s why.

When Margaret Hoffman's kids were in elementary school, their teachers told them their mom would make a great teacher.

A teacher? Hoffman laughed it off.

She was an urban forestry expert. A native plant lover. A landscape designer.

“I thought there was no way I had the patience to be a teacher,” she says.

Those grade school teachers were pretty smart.

These days, Hoffman is assistant professor of landscape contracting at Pennsylvania State University.

And she loves it.

People who work at Level Green Landscaping often talk about the family atmosphere at work.

But the fact is, they have real families at home. And no matter how great the atmosphere is at work, you want to spend time with your actual family.

At Level Green, we know time away from work is as important as work.