- Summary -
Cons heavily outweigh the pros and are just not worth it working at Lifetouch. If you're not here for the experience, you're WAY better off working as cashier for a grocery store.
- Detail -
- High turnover rate. Twenty people came to training day. Out of the twenty, nine people (including myself) were left two to three weeks later. I should have done that myself, but I was so desperate for experience for photography, I felt cornered.
- Something I didn't experience, but what I've heard from my fellow photographers: training day is too short. You only trained them for one day and expect them to set up, take pics and tear down all by themselves the next day.
- Minimum wage. Didn't stay long enough to see if I'll get a raise, but according to other reviewers here, don't expect to see any. And if you do, raise is abysmal.
- Expect to wake up around 4am by average. 3am if you're really lucky.
- Hours are too flexible. One day you'll find yourself working 12 hours straight (including setup, tear down and lugging your equipment), and the next day, you'll find yourself working no hours at all.
- Some lead photographers help you to the point where they hurry you up and finish faster than you should, equating to less hours.
- Wear and tear on your car. Expect to lug 75+ lbs worth of equipment in your car driving anywhere between 15 mins to almost an hour's worth from the office by average. If you care for your car, this will be a major turnoff, especially if you're paying for your auto insurance and worry about the mileage. By the time you're reimbursed for your mileage and get your bi-weekly check, you'll see yourself spending a good portion of that to your auto body shop.
- Equipment is outdated. I was assigned a very old set that was poorly managed by a previous photographer, and frames #4-5 (Case 2) almost landed on a 2nd grade student. I don't blame the teacher for getting mad at me. I pleaded the manager to get me a new set, and all he/she did was tape the frames around.
Are you kidding me!? I don't care if you give me a raise! I am NOT working with that until I get new equipment that is less hazardous to a child's well being!
- Despite being a photographer, expect to do a butt ton of paperwork, especially if you're lead photographer.
- A LOT of favoritism going on in the company where employees ask super unnecessary questions to the territory manager, and are obviously just there to butter up to him/her.
- You DO NOT have freedom of how pictures are taken. You're practically working in an assembly line posing them the same stupid instructions: stand on red feet; thumbs in pocket or hand on hip + bend on knee for girls; lean forward (super important); chin down; chin forward for the double-chin and/or eyeglass wearers (super important); head turn slightly to the left; head tilt slightly to the left (super important); and that big "genuine" smile that you will almost never get.
Expect to be running ragged doing this from Preschool to 12 graders + staff members, taking a picture of them ideally around 35 seconds to a minute per student.
I can list a whole lot more as to what's wrong with Lifetouch. If you still want to take this job knowing these cons, then I wish you the BEST of luck good sir/madam.
