Traits of a Good Photo Nanny

In 2005 I had the opportunity to go to South Africa for the first time on a photo safari.  Little did I know how that family experience would change my life and the lives of so many others.  It led to the creation of Photo Nanny.  I am so blessed to be doing something I love and now have five staff members helping preserve family memories, but we’re constantly looking for more team members to help us on this adventure.  It’s not an easy search.

In a nutshell what seems to be the most challenging for finding and hiring good staff members is the fact that our business is such a unique niche.  There’s not a “Photo Nanny” category on job search websites.  There’s not an “organizer” category or a “photo tech support” category, so we place our ads in every place we can think of that might have people with the skills we’re looking for.  Because the bottom line is we’re not going to find anyone who has had a job title or description like ours!  After eight years in this business, I know which skills and traits work and which don’t, so we focus on individual traits regardless of a person’s job title or experience.

I’ve found that locating people with a combination of skills and interests like mine is similar to looking for an elephant in the woods.  (You’d think it’s easy, but it’s not!)  I mean, after all, elephants are big, huge, noisy animals, right?  But during our first safari, I quickly learned that size doesn’t matter at all when it comes to finding the thing you’re looking for.  God did a great job with camouflage for the different animals, and we’d be looking and looking for these enormous animal herds and we wouldn’t see them until we were almost too close for comfort.  We’d notice some large tree limbs lying on the ground like a tornado had been through the area, and then boom, there was the herd.  Truly amazing.

I believe finding the right staff can be similar to looking for elephants.  I know there are individuals who are perfect for our work, but they don’t know it.  They might be standing right in front of me (as a cashier or an administrative assistant, or maybe a computer nerd…) and they don’t know about our business, but if they learned about the opportunity with an open mind, they  might find the perfect place for their skills.

One of the key traits for succeeding as a staff member at Photo Nanny is having a great memory.  It’s an absolute must when it comes to being a successful part of our team.  We work with family photos and memorabilia from the 1800s all the way to the present, and it’s important that we efficiently sort and find items as we’re working.  We need to recognize a photo as a duplicate even if we saw the other copy two days ago, and we need to recognize the boy with the glasses in 1920 is the same person as the man in the suit and tie in 1950.  So, whatever someone has done for a living before joining our team is irrelevant as long as they have an incredible memory.

People who enjoy puzzles will enjoy working at Photo Nanny.  Another trait we’re looking for is enjoying problem-solving…solving a mystery.  Individuals who enjoy and do well in our business actually enjoy the challenge of being handed a pile of mismatched, disorganized family goodies.  They relish the idea of solving the mystery of which photo belongs in the 1970s, which belongs in the ‘80s and so on.  There’s an art to it, but if an individual doesn’t enjoy that sort of challenge for problem-solving, then they won’t enjoy our work.  And we believe all staff members will do best, succeed and provide the best output if they actually enjoy what they’re doing.

We are constantly interviewing and searching for the right individuals, but every day I’m reminded I’m not “typical.” I have an insatiable desire to want to go through people’s photos and reconstruct their stories.  Some of my clients have expressed that they’d rather have a root canal than do what I do, but I love it, and I’m always trying to find others like myself to jump in on the fun.

As we search high and low for the right people, we have honed a wonderful testing procedure for every candidate as we pinpoint their ability to join us and succeed.  There’s math and spelling involved in what we do.  Computer skills, typing, visual acuity and a great attitude are all part of the process. This year we’ve even added a Youtube video component which gives us the opportunity to see whatever story an applicant wants us to.  It’s been a great way to learn about individuals, their creativity and gives them a chance to highlight their own skills and areas of interest.

In a nutshell Photo Nanny is the place for you if you have strong organization skills, a great memory, good spelling skills, the desire to help others, a good attitude and sense of appreciation for history and the importance of preserving families’ stories from the past.  A Photo Nanny employee needs technical skills for working on MACs and PCs to help organize digitals and the ability to teach people to maintain their files on their computers, ipads and tablets.  Each candidate must submit a resume, and those with the right skills move on to several other phases of testing. .

At the present time we have a couple of positions we’re trying to fill.  The jobs are posted on several websites, but I’m writing this blog in the hopes others who may not even be looking for work might see themselves in these words – or know someone who is looking for a unique opportunity.  If that’s you or someone you know, please contact me ASAP.  I’m blessed to say we have a great team right now with all these skills, but I hope to expand our ability to meet demand.  Come join us on this exciting adventure!