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While I'm blessed to be steadily employed and hoping to retire in 5 years (and 34 days), my friend for decades is in a situation that I wish I could help him resolve.
He's a professional photographer with a family business and a beautiful home studio, indoors and out. Sadly, his livelihood has all but disappeared into thin air since the millennium. Everybody seems to have high-megapixel digital cameras, scanners, printers, software and glossy photo paper. So who needs him?
It's simply easier to do things ourselves. Most people I know can take decent photos and portraits, print and frame their own stuff, and make Mom a couple hundred Christmas cards every year – all in the comfort of Ft. Livinroom. So with the exception of posters, coffee mugs and calendars (each about $15 at Walgreen's), we can do it all ourselves!
There are businesses that still hire photographers, and I've helped him hone customized resumes that get him interviews. But time and time again, he gets passed over in the selection process. He's youthful for a guy in his 50's, but they always go with someone barely old enough to buy beer. Kids with a couple classes at PCC under their belts, instead of the guy who can do it all: photography, video, digital and old school image corrections, printing in all sizes and mediums, lighting, set design and construction, client rapport, web pages, travel in an ice storm and get the prize-winning shot – you name it.
In a nutshell, he personifies that cliché term we hear... "Overqualified." But it's not the obvious money thing. He has no pretense of earning what he used to. In exchange for a steady gig he can count on with skimpy benefits after awhile, he's willing to bust his hump for entry level pay like any youngster might (or might not – some folks' workplace expectations are a bit screwy compared to when I grew up).
I offer tips and leads when I have some, but I'm only one guy. Anyone else here have some ideas to share that might help put him on an even playing field with his younger competition? Perhaps broader/generic ideas that would help people in any trade get back to work after age 50!
Thanks in advance.
He's a professional photographer with a family business and a beautiful home studio, indoors and out. Sadly, his livelihood has all but disappeared into thin air since the millennium. Everybody seems to have high-megapixel digital cameras, scanners, printers, software and glossy photo paper. So who needs him?
It's simply easier to do things ourselves. Most people I know can take decent photos and portraits, print and frame their own stuff, and make Mom a couple hundred Christmas cards every year – all in the comfort of Ft. Livinroom. So with the exception of posters, coffee mugs and calendars (each about $15 at Walgreen's), we can do it all ourselves!
There are businesses that still hire photographers, and I've helped him hone customized resumes that get him interviews. But time and time again, he gets passed over in the selection process. He's youthful for a guy in his 50's, but they always go with someone barely old enough to buy beer. Kids with a couple classes at PCC under their belts, instead of the guy who can do it all: photography, video, digital and old school image corrections, printing in all sizes and mediums, lighting, set design and construction, client rapport, web pages, travel in an ice storm and get the prize-winning shot – you name it.
In a nutshell, he personifies that cliché term we hear... "Overqualified." But it's not the obvious money thing. He has no pretense of earning what he used to. In exchange for a steady gig he can count on with skimpy benefits after awhile, he's willing to bust his hump for entry level pay like any youngster might (or might not – some folks' workplace expectations are a bit screwy compared to when I grew up).
I offer tips and leads when I have some, but I'm only one guy. Anyone else here have some ideas to share that might help put him on an even playing field with his younger competition? Perhaps broader/generic ideas that would help people in any trade get back to work after age 50!
Thanks in advance.