Vantaggi
Photographing cute kids, learning what makes a great portrait. You don't have to work weekends. Many of my co-workers were nice (but not all of them). If you only want to work full time for three months, like working with kids, like taking pictures, and have a lot of energy, this could be for you.
Svantaggi
It's very stressful with low pay and no job security. Income varies from week to week. You never know your schedule for the next week until Thursday or Friday of the previous week, so it's almost impossible to plan your life around work. Also, most days you go to a school for the day not knowing if the school will give you a lunch break or how long you will be there. One time, I had to wake up at 3:30am to drive to a school an hour and a half away. Midway through the day, I had to stay set up to photograph until 5pm. It takes about an hour to tear down and pack up your car with all the gear, so I didn't get home until 8pm. You may work long hours with no break. During school registration days in August, you may have to work late into the evening one night, then wake up at 3:30am the next morning to drive to the next school and set up the equipment (which takes 1 to 1.5 hours) to be ready to photograph at 7am. On those occasions, it is impossible to get enough sleep and have the energy to work the next day. The work can be very draining. The schools make the schedules and sometimes they make it so there's only one minute allotted to photograph each student. You don't get to be creative with the school portraits. If you're a photographer, you don't get to use the images in your portfolio. There is a lot of wear and tear on your vehicle and you have to keep all the gear in your trunk, which will likely take up your entire trunk and back seats, depending on the size of your car. I didn't feel like a valued employee. The employees who had been there longer had a gas card, but they discontinued it for the newer employees. I lot of employees quit or were fired before the season was over.
