Working at Portrait Innovations — Reviews by Employees

I have been with the company for 2 years now and I absolutely love my career! I have met great people within corporate and throughout the regions. The pay and benefits are beyond comparable measures with other studios and the opportunity for advancement is within ones reach!

I enjoy working in my studio and my associates work very well as a great and unbreakable team! I have been a manager with many different companies and by far, this company is the best.

You may have to work a vast amount of hours during the holiday season but what are you doing for the Other 10 months out of the year? Maybe sit on your bums getting paid $12+ an hour for doing NOTHING??? Not to mention the fact that each person that signs on for a career with PI is well informed of the blackout dates and approximate amount of hours worked during the holidays!!! I have a family and I have no problems balancing life and my career. So maybe balancing is a trait many people can't handle? I read a lot about people stating "lives are taken from us"... Is what you make it... Time management is the key to a successful life/career!

I believe your experience with any career is yours to make, good or bad. All on you! I believe that people just need to grow up and learn the real value to working and being proud of what you do! BTW, I have a pretty good average and my studio one of top in the region and guess what... it's all done WITHOUT LYING!!! Imagine that!!! Those with low averages... gotta point this on out... IT’S NOT THE APC’S FAULT!!!! I PROMISE YOU THAT...

I work at a fairly low volume, newer studio. We have an awesome manager and all of my coworkers are truly some of the best people I have ever worked with. The pay is pretty great ($12/hour for full timers at my studio) considering the job requires no relevant experience or degree. I have no need for insurance, but this place is not the place to work if you need insurance through your employer. They provide a paltry $1/hour in addition to your hourly rate to pay for insurance, but I doubt this would be more than a drop in the bucket for some. My only personal issue it the job stability and regional managers. Our regional manager is a true example of an egotistical, power tripping ass. Luckily we rarely deal with them. The job stability, however, is frightening. Neither I or my coworkers were told of the horrible $100/average needed to keep your job until well after our first month of training. Corporate needs to end this shitty practice asap. The APC is what 99% are coming in for. PI portraits are mediocre pics at best and they are targeted towards bargain shoppers. Sure, we get people in that are ready and willing to buy every single picture we take and thats awesome! But the vast majority of the people that visit our studio are lower income, young families/single parents/grandparents. You are lucky if you can get a 9.95 + 1 pose with many of these people. Our jobs should not be in jeopardy over what our customers are willing to pay. I guarantee you, if PI got rid of the 9.95 special AND didn't put so many damn sheets in the collections, people would come in expecting (and WILLING!) to spend more. I can't even count how many times people have wanted to go with a 12+ pose but in the end went with a 3 pose because of the insane number of photos they would be walking out with. Most people don't need 36 or more sheets of pictures.

PI is a crap shoot as far as employment goes. From what I see and hear, I got incredibly lucky to score such a great studio and manager to work for- no intense pressure for our sales averages (even willing to let us put what we *know* will end up as an ace under his number!) and more than willing to work with our schedules. Just research the studio you are applying to. If they are high volume and have a heinous manager, RUN!

To call people out negatively by name, make reference to their weight or social habits is unfair and the information is irrelevant. Who really cares if your boss likes to have a few beers after work. After dealing with associates that bitch as much as you all do on this site, chances are they need it. Managers and regionals have worked hard to get where they are. Success at your job isn't determined by the number of people who like you, it's determined by performance. You're not the first person to hate your boss, you're certainly not going to be the last but you also aren't the majority. If they aren't good at what they're doing, they wouldn't be doing it. You need to stop blaming them for your failures and start realizing you may have been the problem all along.

Some of you complain about having to maintain a $100 sales average. It's called a standard. If you're not able to do your job we'll find someone who can. There are plenty of people that have no problem running good numbers. While you may be a great person, you're obviously just not a good fit for the company. Any job will fire you for not performing. If you can't swim would you apply to be a lifeguard? I'm thinking no.

Work/Life Balance... Well, being a manager means I work 45 hours a week in the off-season. As long as you have a decent work ethic 45 hours isn't a whole lot. I still have time to enjoy my life and hang out with my friends. But... It's retail. During holiday seasons you're going to end up working a whole hell of a lot more. Yes you get tired, frustrated and sick but come January you're sitting on a fat bank account from all your time and a half pay. And... If you do a phenomenal job you're going to get a phenomenal bonus in April. It's definitely not something to complain about.

I absolutely adore the majority of the other managers in the company. Knowing my peers are competent and fun creates a positive work environment for me and I try to keep that the same for my associates. I run a pretty busy studio and I have a lot of people working there. I need to make sure newbies not only perform well but also mesh with the environment we've set up. If you don't enjoy your coworkers you're not going to like the job as much as you need to to succeed here.

With any young company there is going to be a bit of trial and error. Sure there are some managers who aren't the greatest but, just like associates, manager underperformance isn't tolerated and they get weeded out too. The Grosso's have built a solid foundation both in the studios as well as the corporate office and they're going to continue to be successful because they have the ability to learn and improve. I love my job and in turn work my ass off to keep my performance high. I've had no problems with the way the company is run in the years since I've started and I highly encourage any excitable, fun individual with people experience to apply for a job here.

I read this site often. My associates and I laugh every time. First off this job isn't for artists. We are retail salespeople that hold cameras. Oh no the dreaded 9.95 cost you your job. Guess what, this company has 180 stores and is still growing. If everybody bought just the 9.95 they would have been sent packing a long time ago. Here is the deal; if you work hard it pays off. If you don't want to work hard, go work at the mall selling t-shirts. I have worked for the company for about 2 years and the only problem I have had is that I had an incompetent manager when I was hired. I got promoted, took over a studio, have great morale, and everybody has an average over 105. It sounds to me like some of these people had bad managers. All of my associates get breaks and have personal lives. If a manager is even slightly competent this job flows by. An 8 hour day seems like 2 and every Friday you collect your money. If you approach this job with a good attitude you will be successful. I go in every day thinking that what I do today will be a part of every one of my customers for the rest of their lives. So if you have a good work ethic, and want to earn your money and can work as early as 8:30 and as late as 7:30, put in an app. We would be happy to have you. By the way 10 months of the year you get at least one (usually 2) 3 day weekend every six weeks which is hard to get in retail.

Pay only redeeming quality of this job
Work/Life Balance you will work a lot and have no life you will be called in to cover people who get fed up and quit
Respect none they overbook under staff and make staff crazy and customers mad
Career Potential/Growth it is like high school get in good with the cool kids and you can know nothing and in 3 months still get promoted
Benefits very little you are on your own extra in your pay get your own health insurance but not to cover but 50% of the cost.
Location they mostly pick upper scale strip malls then ship out 9.95 fliers to every home not qualifying customers that can afford to spend
Job Security none you must run $100 average the people that would lie to customers would be ok my manger he would tell people the 6 pose is the last to get the CD it’s not!
Co-worker Competence a lot of good people are chewed up and spit out by this company
Work Environment what is sad this could be a great place to work but the management is not looking at long term employees and customer just quick money.

Before you decide to work for this company go as a customer on a Saturday and only get the 9.95. Watch how it works really is and not just the corporate sells you about the job.

I raved about this company 8/6/09 and many commented. I was with the company for 8 months and got promoted to the management position...
Many people commented telling me just to wait its only been 8 months. well, now its been over a year and my attitude towards the company has changed. No, it didn't get worse it only got better.
One thing I have to say is that Portrait Innovations is a very fast and growing company. I see a lot of people complaining about sales averages, lots of hours, no social life, etc. My thing is During the non season you get your hours. Unlike most company they only base hours off of appointments. Portrait Innovations does not. Many people have commented about the Benefits..I'm sorry but the benefits are there you just have to use them. Insurance...its called Health Care Reimbusment. They give you 90% of what it would cost for your gender and age I'm a male and am in the 21-25 age brackett and receive plenty of money to get my insurance. you also get life insurance as well and vacation days.
During the "blackout season" yes you do work more hours and its because everyone and their mother are wanting holiday portraits so yea you are goign to get busy its expected.
To the people commenting about the only thing that is on the company's mind is MONEY MONEY MONEY. WELL, duh duh duh. There are no company's out there that doesn't want to make money, that is why they are in business, its to make money.
Also, it is not hard to keep i good average. I run a 162 average, my pictures sale on their own. If your pictures are good enough the parents will buy them...YES you do have to ppl who clamp down on the 9.95 flyer like its their ticket to heaven and that's all you get from them. Sorry but it happens.
too many ppl complain about this job when it's no one's fault except the employee. Do your job take amazing pictures. and bam you have it. Always have a good attitude toward all customers. yes even those acers.
If you currently work for PI. here are some thigns to keep in mind.
1. Customer/Photographer Relationship- Be there friend, get them to confide in you.
2. If the studio is busy, just work faster, its a job where you actually have to work.
- my studio is the busiest studio in the region and we book all appts. we jsut work faster.
3. If you don't like the job quit. no one is making you stay there. You are only hurting yourself by staying there. There is someone else who needs the job and could possibly do it better than you can with a better attitude because they want to be there.
4. Communication is everything, if you want to talk to The President he is there. I have talked to him on many occassions and he is there listening and willing to help you. However, if it is something stupid that you could have handled on your own then youshould have. we are all adults and should try to work things out ourselves.
5. you get days off, use them wisely. Same thing with vacation days. use them they are there for a reason.

I love my job. I love the company. It's doing something right becuase they are one of the leaders in the photography businesses. So its not them. And if itsnot them then its you.

This is a good company and I've never seen more whiny people in my life. Guess what, you have to actually WORK at a job.

I love this job!!

I recently left PI this summer after working there for over 2 years. We certainly had a love/hate relationship. I was hired into a new studio, so we experienced the excitement of new customers who were burnt out from other studios in the area and just LOVED what we had to offer. Working there for as long as I did, I developed relationships with customers and their children to the point where I knew when to be expecting them for their birthday pics, family photos, etc. I felt appreciated as they would come in and request me, and the kids would want to give me hugs when they left. An experience like that is hard to come by, and to get paid for doing what you love is a major bonus. Reading all of the negative comments makes me think that I lucked out, that my studio was different in that I had a fantastic manager. She had our backs no matter what. If a customer complained about the photographers, or corporate threatened 'this or that', she was quick to stick up for her staff. She was careful in the hiring process and thorough in the training of newbies, so we had a pretty solid staff. Unfortunately, the demands of the job made it incredibly difficult to stay positive, but I just excused it as being the 'real world' and having a full time job. (I too was hired pretty much out of college)
The Pay- the starting pay is pretty good, but you certainly have to work for it. Especially having a bonus involved. There were things that came along with the job that I reminded myself I was under payed for, such as cleaning up baby spit up, getting hit by children, yelled at by irrational mothers, and threatened by (and one time hit on by) impatient fathers. But the one thing to remember, if your performance is good, your raise will be higher.
Respect- Like I said above, we were all respected by our manager, but by corporate we were pretty much abused. I felt as though all we heard about from corporate was $$$$$! keep your sales up, get the next customer in and get them out, don't people wait--- but don't rush the other people out of the camera room! YES it's true that PI over books apts during Christmas and YES it's true that they demand certain sales, but you HAVE to look at it from a business perspective. If everyone who came in only spent $9.95, then there would be no more PI. and of COURSE they are going to try to maximize revenue during the time of year where people max out their credit cards. Christmas time is busy everywhere, and when you deal with unpredictable children of course the time backed up with appointments will snowball and eventually set you back an hour. But to be fair (at least in our studio) we were able to compensate for waiting by giving free stuff, and that usually kept people happy.
Benefits- we got reimbursement, so we could purchase our own plan. It was alright, but for me at least, it didn't make a whole lot of difference compared to what I have now.
Job Security- like anywhere, if you do what you are asked, you will probably keep your job. I'm not sure there's much job security anywhere these days!!!
Work/Life Balance- This is the reason I left the company. PI was a completely different place to work in the summer, fall and late winter. It was chill, 40 hour weeks and we were able to spend quality time with customers. But Christmas and Easter time, forget it. Demand is high for pictures, and for a job like this you can't just hire someone to start the next day shooting great pics and selling high numbers. so staff is over booked and loosing their minds daily. 70+ hours a weeks, 12-14 hour days, 6 days a week. Mind you, it's an exhausting job. To top it off, you just don't get breaks unless you have a no show apt. and when you do take a break, customers question why you aren't doing anything productive. I hardly ever saw my husband, and when I did, I was so stressed out, it was hardly quality time together.
Career growth- Meh....
Location- Pretty good- but I saw that the people who drove brand new BMWs and Mercedes usually spent less money than someone who drove an old Chevy.
Co-worker competence- most of our employees had photography degrees or experience.
work environment- stressful!!! But there are times when you make a new mother cry because her baby's portraits are so beautiful that you forget that the previous 2 year old hit you because he didn't want to sit down and smile.

I'd say if you have a family, this is not the place to work because the demand of your time is so high. but if you are single and looking for an intense job, it's definitely intense!

I've been working with PI for 2 years now and I have a love/hate relationship. I started as PT while in high school, and now work as FT. Most of the corporate office, aka the Johnny Grosso is absolutely RIDICULOUS, but otherwise i'm pretty content with my job. During the off seasons/holidays the job is awesome. I work in a low-volume studio so we get to spend plenty of time with our customers, create awesome relationships with people who come back a couple times a year and you can remember there names/they request you. You have to have a very unique character to be able to handle the job as its not only a photography job, its sales based too. You have to have a pushy edge. I've learned awesome customer service skills with this job, and love working with the little tykes that come in. Of course you always have an occasional crazy 2 year old who will make you sweat your butt off chasing them around, its well worth it when you get super cute smiles and surprised parents who've never gotten that before and are amazed at what you do. The only real downside of the job is christmas/holiday season. Its insanely crazy, most studios are understaffed, and you book way to many appts. Its do-able. We did it this past season, but its not easy. By the end of the season most of our staff hated/was angry with each other because of how exhausted and irritable we were just from working so much/customers yelling and so on and so forth. Of course were fine now and we realize how crazy things get sometimes but the money during that time is awesome. I paid off my car, and i couldn't be happier. Its well worth it in my opinion you just have to have the right attitude/mind set to handle the job.