photographer

senior software engineer

quality assurance engineer

systems administrator

scrum master

Car Media 2.0

My ratings on the company are as follows based on Indeed's ratings, explanations will follow (overall rating explained at the end): 

Overall rating: 2/5
Job Work/Life Balance: 3/5
Salary/Benefits: 2/5
Job Security/Advancement: 1/5
Management: 3/5
Job Culture: 1/5

Job Work/Life Balance: This job has a lot of perks in terms of your potential in balancing it between another job and/or your personal life. Every Saturday, you and every other photographer have to fill-in a form online to state your availability for that week. They won't give you any flak for the amount of days you can or can't work. Sometimes, I'd go a few weeks without be available and they never mentioned anything. However, a major con, for me anyways, was only finding out if I worked on a day that I marked myself as available at or around 8PM the day before. Literally no information's shared with you prior to that. Got something that came up last minute? Got another job asking you to come in? Well, you can't commit to anything until you get that email stating that you're shooting the next day or not.

Salary/Benefits: 10$/car. I've done vehicle photography in the past, and figured that this would average at least 20-30$ or more an hour. However, it never ended up being the case. You spend at least 50% of your time driving between dealerships (unlikely to shoot at just one a day), setting up the vehicle, gathering keys from the dealership, and looking for the vehicle you're going to shoot. Typically, you'll shoot anywhere between 10-15 cars a day. Occasionally, you'll do 20 if things lineup properly. Other benefits are 75$ a day if you go out to shoot, no matter what, so if you get stuck in bad weather and you're only 5 cars in, then they'll likely send you home with some extra change. 20$ for bad weather on a day that you're scheduled but you couldn't make it out and they contacted you to stay home. You get paid every month, which ends up being one long stretch for your first pay (roughly 60 days).

Job Security/Advancement: Really nothing to mention here. You're not 100% sure if you're going to shoot the next day until 8PM. No advancement options within the company as a photog. 

Management: Had fairly good interactions with their managers, but sometimes miscommunication was a nuisance and they'd never follow-up on situations that occurred at dealerships. After having an issue at a dealership one day, I'd provided information to Car Media's information asking them to communicate the issue to the dealership's lot attendant. However, the poor behavior never seized and I shortly after decided that this wasn't the gig for me. They didn't end up actually paying for my first month and never got back to me on it.

Job Culture: Really no culture to be mentioned here. There's rarely any engagement with other staff and the emails are just like spam when sent by management (promoting their social media pages, etc.). 

Overall: This job was definitely not what I expected it to be. Taking pictures of cars seems like a sweet gig, but there were so many variables that impeded on my experience working for Car Pics/Media. Their scheduling process, as mentioned above, is so out of touch. When you arrive at the dealership, they NEVER have your keys or cars ready. You'll spend countless amount of unpaid time just sitting or standing around waiting for them to figure it out. If you're dealing with a salesperson, and a customer walks in, they will walk away from you and expect for you to wait. Again, all unpaid time. Finding spots to shoot the vehicles can be nearly impossible. Their lots, depending on the location, are very small and you need to make sure that you're out of the way of other workers and especially the customers. You're expected to take out & put back in any paper mats, protective seat covers, window flags and put them back at the end of the shoot. When you're done shooting the car, you need to park it back in that little nook you took it out of. The lot attendants will heckle you over the smallest things that it almost becomes comedic after a certain point. For example, I'd turned the tires right instead of left after parking it, and the attendant came to lecture me about it while I was shooting another car. It was really ridiculous. Some attendants will even get upset if you say that the car's unclean and will tell you to clean it which isn't your job. 

As another reviewer broke it down, you won't come out making much more than the minimum wage in Ontario after you pay for your gas and all of the unpaid shenanigans start taking place. I also never got paid for my first month, and no follow-up was done.


After I found all of this out, paired with the upcoming winter weather, I'd just stopped scheduling myself. If you can find any other way to pursue photography as a source of income, do it. This one isn't what you think it'll be, plus I'm pretty sure that half of these reviews are written by their own team based on the writing style.

**VERY IMPORTANT**: When I'd called my car insurance to renew this year, it was going to nearly double because I was told that I had to go from a personal insurance policy to commercial/business. The reasoning behind this was that I traveled to multiple locations for jobs and that I was carrying my 'work' in the car with me. If your insurance finds out that you're a photographer w/o proper insurance, you could be at a loss if you get into an accident and your vehicle & gear get damaged. Of course, Car Media never mentioned this either.

Expect to drive a lot, try to find work each day(Cars) be paid $10 per car  Yes you work at your own pace. 
Now use you when they need you & on the other side only work when you want to.
Understand that you will only find out by 8 pm the night before, if there is a job, thereby making it tough to arrange another income revenue for the next day. You have to give your days of availability on the Saturday prior. Understand, they may give a dealership to shoot, but mid day remove the dealership away and “say we had another photographer take care of it”. 

Pay has not gone up in many years!  Now expect only to get $10 per car, yes it works out to maybe $18 hour but get paid as a consultant or as your own company, no benefits, workers comp., plus pay your own taxes. You bill them at the end of the month, and get paid the end of the next month. So from the shoot day to the pay day could be up to 60 days.

Consequently, in the job, yourself  could end up driving 149 km and not getting paid for the gas(which gets you $25 only if google maps tells them, with no accounting for construction).  So if you drive to 3 different towns to shoot 2 cars in town #1 and 5 in town # 2 and 3 in town # 3 = 10 cars ~ $100 plus you have done 149 km on your car at your expense plus spend 1-2.5 hrs driving depending on weather and traffic.  Conversely, after all that they may have 9 cars to shoot with 6 with outside-inside not clean/or available because of repairs / or the battery is dead!  Moreover, you could shoot 20-25 cars if the dealerships cared enough to have them sitting in one area, with all the keys and are clean. But that has only happened to maybe 1 out 30 dealerships. Now the weather has to be right, dealership needs to have ready the cars and you can find the cars. You could drive all the way up to 60k and get there and it starts to snow - guess what they do not want you to shoot their cars.  

Some dealerships will only give you access to 3-5 keys, than you find out over 1/2 the cars are sold or pending to be sold. Training at some dealerships to use their system, is on your coin and at their convince. Waiting around for keys is expected plus you may not get proper information on what is ready to shoot or even sold.  Ordinarily, on an average day expect to walk 1000-28000 steps to find and shoot the cars. Nevertheless be ready to wash/and clean off the snow up to 3” and scrape the windshields of your own cars to shoot, if you want any work. 
Eat your lunch in your car at the back of the property out of sight plus eating while working is a no/no & frowned on if you are in sight of the office. 

Do not complain to the office, you will be lower on the list to get jobs. Expect there to be favouritism (unfair preference, preferential treatment, special treatment, one-sidedness, prejudice, bias, inequality, unfairness, inequity) in getting jobs. They will always go by “rewarding high ranking shooters with more frequent schedules” even after you are sent in to clean up the rudeness of other photographs & apologies for their issues. 

Just by chance you do not have good internet or good connection, expect to spent more time and cost of trying to upload the images. You expected to have all the images uploaded by 8 pm the night of the shoot if there are connection issues, again not their problem. 

If you Think this will give you a proper income “ Think again”

I started photographing for Carmedia December 2016 as a way to make "guaranteed" money while I hustle for my photography business. Before Carmedia I was working part time at a retail store  but wasn't really happy doing that anymore. They were only as flexible as a company who puts out their schedule 4 weeks ahead of time could be. Needless to say, it was a pain to plan photoshoots. When I was introduced to the opportunity at Carmedia it seemed like the perfect partnership! I replaced my part time retail job with Carmedia and it's been absolutely perfect since. No more stress with planning my own shoots while still easily being able to shoot for them. They ask for your schedule Saturday for the coming week, so If I have anything planned I tell them "can't shoot this day, but if it changes I'll update my schedule". I have made adjustments through the week and have been able to pick up an extra day, or swap days around. They are very easy to work with. I find communication great typically. Sometimes there's some confusion at a dealership but HQ responds within minutes so you can always get things cleared up fast. Sometimes the earnings per hour are great other times you will put in more hours and get paid less. It does vary and it completely depends on the dealership and yourself. I learnt early on to call at least an hour before going to each dealership. It has solved many problems of waiting around for things to be ready. That said sometimes you do still have to wait. Again, something I've learnt is just to have other work with me too. I always bring my journal so I can work on my business plans, quotes etc. If I'm going to be sitting in a lounge for 20 min waiting for keys, I might as well get other work done. Some dealerships are better than others, it is what it is. 

Other than shooting for "new initiative" I don't really think there is anywhere to advance too, and there doesn't appear to be raises, at least for now. It's definitely more enjoyable than retail, and even with the minimum wage increase, it does still work out to more per hour as well. As far as job security goes, I've always felt no place can offer true security. With Carmedia you're not really an employee so you can't be fired, but I'd imagine if you aren't producing good quality results and if you cause issues with the dealerships they would decide to not schedule you anymore. So it's not like you're untouchable. Just shoot great and be a nice person. I have not had problems with this at all. 

Even still after more than a year working with them I get emails here and there updating me on my quality so it's good that they do check things over and let you know how you're fairing out. 

I definitely recommend shooting for Carmedia!

like the other photographer said, the schedule is incredibly flexible! Every Sat morning you will be asked to give the next weeks' availability. Then the evening (sometimes late afternoon) you will receive an email from scheduling team about the next day's assignment locations. The folks in the office work very hard and they communicate openly and honestly. 

here are a few things that I really liked about working with Car Pics:
1) $75 base pay for every day you go out and shoot for them. Since we are getting paid on per car basis. and the job is heavily dependent on weather conditions. sometime, It could turn out that you got to the location and the weather comes unworkable. or dealership didn't get enough cars ready for the shoot. In both these circumstances, you are guaranteed with a $75 for the day from the company. 

2) The work is steady all year long. Forget about making a few thousand on a wedding shoot or something. It's not happening that often and you can't possibly shoot weddings all year long. It's ideal for pros to use carpics as side gigs that will keep generating income even in the slow time of their businesses. As for young photographers like myself who are still trying to establish themselves, this is great for me to generate enough income so that I can pay for my food and rent so that I can be free of relying on a part-time job that has nothing to do with things that interest me the most-photography.

3) It's great for photographers who are considering to relocate within Canada. They have dealership clients all over Canada. If you do a good job, they would want to keep the working relationship going. Taking me for example, I just recently relocated from Saskatoon (a tiny city in the midwest) to Toronto. It helps me immensely because I can start working immediately after I come to Toronto. It saved me time, money and frustration to look for a job like I would if I don't have this lined up for me when I arrive in Toronto.

So overall, the pay is good. and it's steady work.

Their ad looking for a photographer and offering $100 - $250 / hour is utter BS.  The pay $10 / car.  That's it.  I can plug through, on average, 5 cars an hour.  That's $50/hour.  Not bad eh?  Well that's if the stars are all aligned.  Meaning a couple things: 
1) the dealership has the cars clean and ready in a area decent enough to shoot them.  
2) you didn't have to spend 45 - 60 mins in your own car getting to the dealership. (not paid mileage especially if you're sent out of your own town/city.

I've been sent to the entire opposite side of the city (45-50 min drive ONE WAY)  for 2 cars! Waste of time, energy and gas to make $20.  Now they do have a $75 minimum to photographers, however that is on a per day basis, not per dealership.  So in the example, if I didn't have another dealership to go to, I'd get the $75.  But even with another dealership afterwards, say 10 cars, with travel there and back to the 1st dealership, and then to the 2nd dealership, I could make $120.....FOR THE DAY.  By the hour it works out to $24/hour give or take.  Not really that great of a rate for a "Professional" photographer,  for the amount of time in your day being eaten up. I'm of the belief that if you get paid as a photographer, you're in effect, professional.  and a Professional Photographer rate is much higher than $24/hour especially when you consider wear and tear on you, your gear and your vehicle!

The people to deal with on their hotline are the only real thing going for CarMedia 2.0.  They are, for the most part, very polite and considerate.  

The management, or whoever is in charge of sales, should implement a minimum requirement to the dealerships, 10 cars regardless they have 1, 2 or 20.  So when you get sent to a dealership that can't organize their own inventory or have respect for the time a photographer is giving them,  you're time is at least covered.   They really need to understand logistics more, a little more effort on their part and a minimum charge to dealerships would make it more economical for the photographers.

Work days consist of traveling on your own in your own vehicle to multiple dealerships and photographing 25-35 photo sets of vehicles that are for sale. 
You usually won't shoot much less than 10 vehicles in a day, but it often hovers around the 15-20 vehicle mark. I worked this position in combination with other contracts and treated it as a part time position, but you can shoot an insane amount in the summer, often 5 days a week sometimes exceeding 30+ vehicles in a day. 
You do have to deal with weather, traffic (both on the way to your dealerships and when you are at them), be somewhat customer service savvy and use your own equipment to shoot.
Management is literally the best thing ever. If you can't get along with the management here, you probably just shouldn't work. They are the most kind, accommodating people who understand their work scope entirely. IF there is ever an issue that has not come up to management previously, you have a team of people helping you from afar. They are fair with their demands from you as an employee and there is a lot of room for error as the job is completely remote (if your camera or computer goes down, you won't loose your job).
All in all, if you are into automotive photography, or are a photographer who likes cars, being outside, great management and a quiet enjoyable job, this could be a great fit for you. These guys are amazing!

Having retired from the IT industry a few years ago I decided to use my passion for automotive photography to earn little extra money. I started shooting cars for dealers with CarPics2P0 in February 2016 and have had a blast ever since my first day. Most days, I can plow through the list of cars pretty quickly,  sometimes problems do arise (dirty cars, cars not ready, duplicates…) but most problems can be resolved pretty quickly on site by relaying this information to both the lot associate and the support staff at CarPics. I really like the challenges of shooting different cars every day, one day I could be shooting a $200.00 parts car and an hour later I could be shooting a $400.000.00 AMG Mercedes-Benz. The periodic QC we receive, are fair and help keep the photographers on point and able to deliver a quality product to the editors. If you are detail oriented and want a job that is rewarding and challenging, then CarPics2P0 is for you, I can’t recommend them enough.

First off ... just want to say my contacts were really nice people. Quick to respond, friendly. Thats why I gave management a 4 stars.

However, 

This is the terrible breakdown:
- $10 / car ... shooting more than 3 - 4 cars per hour is generous, 
especially when you have to move and find all the cars in the first place.
- also in the summer heat ... not fun,
- I live in Toronto ... so I was averaging 1.5 - 2 hours in the car for TRAVELING up to 5 different dealerships in a day
- They do not pay you for this
- They also do not pay you for the extra car insurance you would need to have for this job
- no gas money 
- Nor wear & tear on your camera equipment 
- they also pay you up to 60 days later 
- So for me: 1.5 hours traveling / maybe 10 - 15 cars / $100 - $150 ...therefore ... @ 3 cars/ hour ... 5 hours for shooting + 1.5 hours for travel + 1 hr editing = approximately $150 for 8 hours of work. 
... about $18 / hour ... minus gas & extra car insurance.

This is not terrible, but not as discussed on my interview.

Hope this helps.

A great group to work for despite the fact you may never meet each other face to face. There's always a laugh and solid communication. I've been treated like a pro by pros since day 1.

Each week, you submit your available days to work. No questions asked. If you've got another job or responsibility, don't be available that day. It does take some time to get up to speed on shooting the cars and being around dealerships, but once you do, you can make some decent money. If you're fast, organized, detailed and thorough, things will go well for you. You've got to be willing to work in the heat and the cold, and deal with the odd delay on the lots, but the benefits FAR outweigh those minor issues.

I've never had one issue with communication with the office, I've always been paid on time, and any issues I've had with dealerships they've had my back. Could not ask for more.

Support staff are great and prompt (a necessity) and the job itself is enjoyable. You have flexibility and independence and the ability to make decisions on your own using your own intuition. 

The pay would be decent if they allowed for full-time employment. Unfortunately, your daily income can vary from a base-set wage to something much better, but there are never any guarantees. It all depends on what the dealerships have available once you arrive. The amount of available inventory is also contingent upon region and time of year. 

You need to be comfortable with the unknown a little, and capable of navigating different personalities at car dealerships, as well as the frequent disarray of their organization. 

But if you like mobility and being outdoors all seasons, this is a nice, part-time gig.

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