I know a lot of you are full time with your photography business and I think that is great. I am wondering what you did before you went full time and where you found that job? was it good? did it pay well? how long did you work there for before you went full time with your own business? and what did you do to get to the point of being full time with your business?

careerbuilder and monster seem to be the best of the big sites. local papers are good too, but a lot of times they use the careerbuilder engine. i should know something about job searches, I spend a ton of time looking to get a new job lol in my case, i'm able to drill down further and search public health specific sites, since that's the field where i got my grad degree. so if you have any particular training, you should search different trade groups.

my current job pays quite well, but i have 6 years of school to back up my salary; i just can't stand the work i do lol honestly, i need to be making as much or more than i am now for me to seriously consider doing photography full time. but that's my goal, so hopefully i'll get there

I've had the same day job for a year and a half now and it's perfect. I'm a receptionist with great benefits and time off, and as long as I answer the phone, I can do whatever I want. So I do pretty much all my editing at work and I can surf the internet, e-mail, etc. and get paid to do it! It's allowed me to put all my photography money back into equipment, so if everything stays the same (i.e. same amount of weddings) I could quit my job next year. But I might be moving, so that might not be possible. Still, it's nice that my job has helped make a lot of progress toward full-time photography.

I went to DeVry in the mid 80's, and was 1 semester from finishing with my degree when Xerox came calling. I took the job, and left the school because, well duh, I already got the job. I left them after 16 years to go to Bellsouth. Bellsouth laid me off in 2003, and that's how I came to photography as a sole means of income.

I didn't jump! I was pushed!

jouralismjobs.com

no longer at the paper, but great little website.

Great websites in general:

simplyhired.com
indeed.com

They are like google for job searches.

Saw the movie Wall Street, said "I could do that", already been doing sales for years. It was much closer to the movie Boiler Room. Actually, it was exactly like Boiler Room. I used those same lines 10 years before the movie came out. Grew a conscience and got into the trade desk management and the compliance side of the business.
After 15 years...I am just tired of it.
Working towards transitioning my income from the day job to the fun job. Realizing more and more each day that there is less than zero security in working for a gigantic conglomerate and one is far more in control if they work for themselves.

I do ask myself...if it came down to "you don't shoot, you don't eat", could I do it. And I don't know. But I guess I will find out.

journalismjobs.com


forgot the N -- It's fixed in this post

I was recruited to work at the company that pays me for work during the day. IT jobs were HOT about 10 years ago...now everything seems to be outsourced to India et al...

including photography....

I found my job on backpage.com of all places. I'm a receptionist (really admin assistant without the title) at a construction company. My boss knows I'm working towards full time photography and is cool if I need to leave early for a shoot or meeting, or need to talk on the phone with a client. I lucked out really.

Great question...but I would like to here from established pros...especially any who tredged in another industry for some time before realizing the dream..how did you do it?