photography job

So I have a offer to 'learn" to shoot with a company using photography obviously to help sell others products. What kinda confuses me is in order to work for this company I would need to travel to them on my own dime for training. I would need to "learn how to shoot" the product the way they want. I would have to pay for my own hotel during. It would cost me about $800 dollars out of my pocket to go get trained to work for them. Am I silly to think a company who want you would obviously invest in you? Also to be vague, its a lot like shooting autos. But the training to shoot said "auto" their way would take over 75 hours of training to learn how to do. Am I also crazy to think if you already understand lighting, and framing how would take 75 hours to teach me how to shoot it correctly?

Sounds like a company that has its primary business selling you the alleged "training", whatever they may otherwise claim

lol, I kinda feel like it falls into the category of model paying an agent to become a model. yet Im not paying them for any training, that I know of as yet. Who knows, maybe once there I get the oh by the way? Im trying to look positive, just cant see it taking that long to train. Maybe Im overlooking, or Im to sure of my abilities? I honestly feel i can replicate the style easily by watching their utube videos.

It confuses me too, what company is this?

I dont want to slam them. Doing a search on here no ones seems to have talked about them. They are in multiple cities, and do have 1099 photogs working for them. But even when I come back, and start working with no guarantee of amount of work....im working for free trying to make up the 800 plus the money im using for gas going to those shoots. I guess the others went thru this process, but Ive never read any talk yet of others doing it this way. is was 50/50 on fence, im now 95/5 against.

Every company I've ever worked for paid me for training. Why? Because once I'm trained I'm there long enough to start making the company money, so training me was an investment for them.

A company that makes you pay for training only tells me that they actually lose money if they pay for training. Which means that most people leave quickly (high burnout rate) or that most people under perform and make almost no money.

Not sure if that's the case, but I'd be extremely cautious with this company.

^^^
I think the same things. Again if you are not willing to invest in your employe....

Reminds me when I was really young and I had a job were the employer made us pay for our shirts for work. Again If you are worring about the price of a shirt then crap. But when you are young you think that is normal. This seems wacked !

Sounds like they want you to pay for 75 hours of training for a job application with no guarantee of work. Politely reply to them and tell them that you are an experienced photographer and do not need to incur expenses of 75 hours of training in a different city for every vendor you work with. 75 hours for example is more training than one needs to get real estate agent license. You can invest $800 and over 75 hours into doing something more productive. Even purchasing $800 worth of advertising marketed towards the same niche as this "auto photography" would generate you thousands dollars worth of new business.

I hope this business is not some sort of scam. Something where new recruits are invited to come to long "training" sessions where they have to take pictures of products and get "graded" on them later. If this company is not investing into their recruits I do not see them offering a great training for you. Do you expect 1/2 of the time spent in a class room talking about auto photography theory? Most likely you are either shooting or assisting someone for free.

Yeah, im kinda seeing it your way for sure. They have people working for them. But im thinking most didnt have to drive 1060 miles round trip to them for training. Also they have some in my area already, and what happened to me once while with another company, was I was being feed the bottom dealers while they got the cherry dealers they wanted to work at. Long story but I need to tell it as they held a check of mine for 850 dollars and never paid me.

I will say that this current job offer isnt car photography though.

MrClark7 wrote in post #16999415
So I have a offer to 'learn" to shoot with a company using photography obviously to help sell others products. What kinda confuses me is in order to work for this company I would need to travel to them on my own dime for training. I would need to "learn how to shoot" the product the way they want. I would have to pay for my own hotel during. It would cost me about $800 dollars out of my pocket to go get trained to work for them.

...so if you lived in the same city as them you wouldn't have to pay for a hotel or travel fees? It would be two weeks of free training?

At the end of the process are they hiring you, or are they contracting you to do this?

There is no photographer shortage in the world. This company apparently doesn't require any old photographer: it requires photographers that can shoot in the specific style they want and can deliver using the workflow/framework they use.

They wouldn't be teaching you how to shoot things "correctly." They would be teaching you how to shoot things "the way they want it." That might mean telling you to shoot things "incorrectly", but in the style and the manner that appeals to their clients.

Two weeks of training isn't that much: especially if some of that training is workflow specific and the company that is offering the training delivers a very specific product.

Without knowing more details its hard to say whether or not it is worth it. You've simply got to crunch the numbers as you know them: and let the numbers dictate whether or not it is worthwhile.

A cursory google shows that you would need to commit many more than 75 hours to get a real estate licence depending on where you live, and it is a pretty involved and extended processs.

banquetbear, it would be free training if i lived there. not hiring, it would be contracting 1099. you are correct in that they want to train me to there style. they dont have a difficult style at all trust me. there is so much better work on here that would be overkill to there style. so im saying the quality isnt hard. which makes 75 hours seem loopy to me. Gut instinct tells me eddie-h view might be right. my understanding talking to head guy is that a good work might be 750 a week, but no guarantee that much work is there.

ive done searches for them on the net and nothing in any forums. plenty of there video work on the net from different cities, but no job talk or views. Some blogs from writers about the companies investment in growing and who the owners are and background, but reminds me of a written up feedback on amazon for a product. After reading im like . why was this arcticle even written and who was the audience supposed to be? again plenty of vids online, so enough kool aid was drank in the past, but as of tonight im gonna pass i think. Only way I would change mind is if room and gas was paid for. Or heck pay one of your local guys to train me here locally.

Without any details on the business itself other than what OP mentioned, sounds like they're definitely abusing candidates to a degree. I'm thinking training sounds a bit long. Maybe about 10 hours to get the flow down and then the rest is free shots for them, but extra 'practice' for you.

Usually the only reason I do free stuff or pay for something is if you can learn or benefit in some way. If their style/quality is mediocre then you might not learn very much that you can use in your future photographic pursuits.

MrClark7 wrote in post #17000479
banquetbear, it would be free training if i lived there. not hiring, it would be contracting 1099. you are correct in that they want to train me to there style. they dont have a difficult style at all trust me. there is so much better work on here that would be overkill to there style. so im saying the quality isnt hard. which makes 75 hours seem loopy to me. Gut instinct tells me eddie-h view might be right. my understanding talking to head guy is that a good work might be 750 a week, but no guarantee that much work is there.

...if you gut tells you something, then follow your gut.

But its free training. They aren't charging you $800, and any company offering free training to potential contractors with no real vetting process would be crazy to stump up money for a hotel and your transport costs.

They want people trained in their system. Being in business for yourself is about choices. If you can see a way to make money out of this, then do it. If you can't, then don't. But from what you have said there doesn't appear to be anything dodgy about this. Two weeks of training can cover a lot, and can weed out the people who think they "know it all" which will leave the people who will "do it as we expect them too." I've been shooting digital for five years now. I studied for six months in an intensive camera course. And I'm still learning things. So if you really don't know the specifics of what the training covers (and it could well cover things like product knowledge, how to submit an invoice, and all sorts of other things) I don't think you can say the training is overkill.

More info would be nice, but my instinct tells me to pass on this. Take the time & $800 & have a nice vacation instead! ; )

MrClark7 wrote in post #17000373
... as they held a check of mine for 850 dollars and never paid me..

I like this Contract term:
"3. Grant of Rights.
No rights are granted to Client until Photographer has received payment in full.
Upon receipt of full payment, Photographer grants to the Client the following rights in the Work..."

Run fast away from it. Every company that has offered to train me on my own dollar turned out to be a waste of my time. Red flag, red flag.