We are pleased to offer an extremely rare and exciting opportunity for a trainee portrait photographer to join our creative studio team. This role would ideally suit someone who is looking for a practical on the job training path in an industry leading portrait studio. It’s a rare chance to break into a highly creative industry and join a well-established successful team.
About us
ZigZag Photography is a very well-established quality portrait photography studio, based in Leicester. We provide a first-class family portrait experience, creating special memories at key stages of people’s lives, from babies to grandparents and often also including the pet (usually dogs!) with finished framed products to then be treasured ‘wall art’ for generations to come.
It's a fast paced, busy, focused and very positive team environment. We work hard but laugh a lot. Job satisfaction is very high along with team appreciation which has many benefits. Everyone works together towards common goals, and we all share the same pride in the service we offer.
The ideal candidate
This is an ‘all-rounder role’, as being able to take a good picture on its own is not enough. We create a fun and memorable entertaining experience for our clients every single time.
Every client is different as is their family, their taste, their décor, and their budget – so this role requires a lot of skills from great photography potential – alongside excellent people skills, sales skills potential and a passion for always delivering first class customer service. Full training will be given for the successful candidate, but to succeed may already have most of the following traits:
- Possess excellent interpersonal skills and be naturally confident with an outgoing personality. It’s essential that you can articulate things well and are able to enthuse people of all ages from babies to grandparents.
- Naturally creative with a reasonable technical understanding of photography. We are looking for someone to develop from an existing reasonable base skill set.
- Good understanding and demonstrable skills with Adobe Photoshop
- Be well presented and have the potential to eventually be good at sales further down the line (with the right training provided by us).
- Hard working dedicated and have determination, resilience and self-motivation in abundance.
- Good level of fitness - as there is a lot of running around the studio in order to make kids laugh and get the best shots!.
- Excellent attention to detail.
- Must be able to drive and have access to a car.
Past experience
- Quality customer service and preferably past retail or hospitality experience, in a fast paced ‘energised’ customer facing role.
Summary of the ideal candidate
We are looking for someone who can demonstrate the potential to grow with us, as it’s a considerable investment in our team’s time to train in all the skills needed for the successful candidate. You will need to be resilient, thick skinned (good at taking feedback) and determined as there will be constant constructive feedback and development on a daily/weekly basis so the right person will need to be totally dedicated to this role and career path.
Hours of work
Full Time Hours of work are:
- Every other Tuesday - 10am-6pm
- Wednesdays - 12pm-8pm
- Thursdays 12pm-8pm
- Fridays - 10am-6pm
- Saturdays - 9am-6pm
- Every other Sunday - 9am-6pm
Remuneration & bonuses
Starting wage will be reviewed at various stages of training development over a 6 month to 18-month period. In addition, subject to training areas signed off at the various stages; there will be additional substantial bonuses on top - based around performance related targets and meeting the studio training objectives. Plus, you will be included into our company pension scheme & other misc. additional benefits.
Starting pay level to be determined based upon your experience and your existing skill set - relevant to what we are looking for.
Our recruitment stages/selection process
After submitting your bespoke covering letter to this role along with your CV (as outlined below in the ‘how to apply’ section); the short-listed candidates will be invited to an initial telephone screen call, then the strongest candidate’s will be invited to the studio for a formal interview. We are looking for someone who is determined to grow their career and prove themselves.
How to apply
If all the above sounds like the perfect role for you and you could see yourself as part of our growing successful team, we would love to hear from you. Please send us a bespoke covering letter specifically outlining the following:
- Why our role specifically appeals to you.
- Why you believe that you are the candidate we are looking for.
- What direct experience you have in both photography and customer facing roles and how you think that will relate to what we are looking for.
Plus please send us your up to date CV, which must have all details of past employment (previous part/full time jobs both in and outside of photography e.g retail / hospitality etc) & your current address. Links or a handful of portfolio examples of your best work would also be preferable when shortlisting candidates.
*Due to the rarity and therefore expected high interest in this position we will only consider / & respond to fully completed application’s, who answer all the questions within a bespoke covering letter for this job.
