Good day ! I have great news from the analog photography industry of Finland –
We are looking for 10 new people to join the companies working on the Camera Rescue Project! There are positions for all levels of knowhow from seasoned professionals to exciting opportunities for summer trainees. Let’s go through them.
There are three full time posts to be filled out as soon as possible:
1. Cameramakers needs more cameramakers.
We already have all the qualified mechanical camera repairmen that are available in Finland working on this project, but we would need many more. There is over 3000 different cameras waiting to be repaired in our center already. If you have extensive repair knowledge and are willing to relocate to Finland (atleast for an introductory period) please do let us know. If you are already retired, but would not mind teaching some of your skills to younger generations, please contact us also!
2. Kamerastore.com is looking for a Product Manager and a eCommerce growth hacker.
These two are pretty self-explanatory as positions, but the big issue is, that to be considered you do not only need to have applicable work experience, but you also need to be a very big camera nerd. If your geekyness over cameras annoys half of your photographing friends, then you would only start to blend in. The Product Manager would have to be based in Tampere Finland, but with the growth hacker position there are more options.
At the same time as we are looking for ready individuals to hop on to empty slots in the team, we acknowledge that this kind of knowhow combination just might not be available anywhere. After all, over two thirds of the current crew has grown with us to the position they are at. We have three Product Managers that have been with us since they were 15 years old and have grown into mastering their areas during the last 6 years. To address this, we have had for several years a summer trainee program.
In the summer of 2018 we had four summer trainees in the team!
This years Summer program will consist of 6-8 positions at the Camera Rescue Center in Tampere Finland.
There are two assistant cameramaker positions. You will work alongside a veteran cameramaker for the summer. You would do whatever he coaches you to do and learn the basics of camera testing and maintenance. Willingfulness to learn and a good humble and resilient attitude will take you far. If all goes well and you have potential, there is a possibility to enter a two year training period to become a fully autonomous cameramaker. For this position you need to be over 18 and primarily it will be filled with people looking into doing a career out of the knowhow they get. Previous experience in any kind of mechanical repair/maintenance work is good, but not mandatory.
Kamerastore has two product assistant positions for the summer. In this position you will learn the basic process of ecommerce ie. do product checking, photography, listing, sales and postage. Four employees of the current Kamerastore team have started their journey by doing this work as summer interns, so it is a great way to start. These positions are also available for minors, and the workload will be there still in winter if you want to do work on the side of studies. As wide understanding as possible of the 30 000 different camera models you might encounter would be benefitial, but we know that even the most hardcore Camera-wiki surfers will keep on learning daily at the Rescue Center so attitude and capability to learn are more key factors in the long term.
The Lab at the Rescue center needs one man too. Here you will be tasked with simple customer service, social media tasks and scanning of film. For the Lab assistant position you do not need to be over 18 and there might be work to do after summer too.
And finally, but probably the most interesting positions for most of you reading this, Camera Rescue team will have several intern positions during the summer too. I will take 1-4 interns during the summer for periods of over 4 weeks. The goal is to multiply our knowhow to new countries so that there will be enough cameras available for future generations. Even if we will do our very best effort during the coming decade in Finland, alone we won’t be able to rescue enough cameras for the whole of Europe.
The goal is that an intern will get to know how the operation works and can start doing it locally in their country/area. These international intern positions have no salary, but living expenses in and traveling to Finland are compensated. If you are an EU citizen you might also want to check out the Erasmus entrepreneurship exchange program, where you can make a 6 month of financially supported internship with the support of the EU.
All of the other positions have trainee salaries + accommodation can be arranged if needed. Also the crew perks at the center include free developing and scanning, hefty discounts on everything you might need from the analog world, lots and lots of dark bitter coffee and colleagues that will make your odd self feel just about normal. We also work 8 hours a day for five days a week, leaving you with a lot of time to explore the nightless night of summer in Finland.
To get a feel of our daily life, you can check this great video by Cameraville:
If any position sparked your interest, fill in the preliminary data form here. We will use that info to determine the next actions and contact people interested in different positions with additional questions and eventually interview requests. If you want to send in a letter of intent + resume or need to contact me with any questions that arise, you can email me at juho@camerarescue.org
You have time to fill out the form until the end of February. The process will continue with one on one interviews during the first weeks of March. Interviews will be done via video call, visiting us in Tampere or you can meet us at the Finland Film Foto Fair in Helsinki the 15th to 17th of March. For more info on the fair visit filmfotofair.com