Best Jobs For Former Photographers [2023]

It’s tough to be a photographer nowadays, and more and more of them are losing confidence in their own profession.

While the amount of people majoring in courses preparing people for a job as a photographer isn’t necessarily dropping, fewer and fewer people are applying to become photographers in the first place and the workforce itself is looking grim.

With so many photographers no longer sticking around, this begs the question:

What are they all doing now?

We were curious, so we looked through the resumes of former photographers to see what kind of jobs they were moving into after leaving the field. There were thousands of answers, so we made the cutoff at the top 100 jobs.

The full list of those jobs can be found below.

Here’s a quick look at the top ten most common jobs for former photographers :

These are all good jobs, all of them either utilizing some skill that a photographer would have or being a stepping stone to a different career.

Here’s the thing about these jobs though — as a list, they’re kind of boring as hell. They’re pretty much exactly what you’d expect a lot of former photographers to do.

But given that there are some very surprising and interesting items on this list, we’ve decided to highlight a few of those instead.

Here are some of the most interesting jobs of former photographers:

Sales Associate Jobs (Overview)
Customer Service Representative Jobs (Overview)
Cashier Jobs (Overview)
Administrative Assistant Jobs (Overview)
Internship Jobs (Overview)
Server Jobs (Overview)
Assistant Manager Jobs (Overview)
Manager Jobs (Overview)
Owner Jobs (Overview)
Sales Representative Jobs (Overview)

Some of these items are admittedly more attractive than one another as far as actually working the job goes, but one way or another, you’ve got to admit they’re eye-catching.

How We Determined the Most Common Jobs of Former PHOTOGRAPHERS

Using resume information from our database of over 7 million resumes, we looked at all resumes that listed photographer under their work history. Then we looked at which jobs showed up on their work histories following their stints as a photographer, sorting them by their most frequent.

That’s how we made the initial ranked list.

To make our list of most interesting jobs, we looked through the ranked list to see if any positions:

Showed up in fewer than 1% of all new jobs
And, were not part of the 100 most common jobs in our database

That’s all for how we did it — below you’ll find the full ranked list of the most common jobs of former photographers.

Detailed Ranking of the Most Common Jobs of Former PHOTOGRAPHERS

Rank	Job Title	%
1	Sales Associate	2.7%
2	Freelance Photographer	2.2%
3	Customer Service Representative	2.09%
4	Graphic Designer	1.7%
5	Cashier	1.48%
6	Administrative Assistant	1.35%
7	Internship	1.07%
8	Server	1.06%
9	Assistant Manager	1.01%
10	Manager	0.85%
11	Owner/photographer	0.85%
12	Owner	0.78%
13	Sales Representative	0.66%
14	Volunteer	0.62%
15	Substitute Teacher	0.61%
16	Office Manager	0.6%
17	Receptionist	0.56%
18	Teacher	0.52%
19	Production Assistant	0.51%
20	Photographer, Editor	0.49%
21	Office Assistant	0.48%
22	Store Manager	0.42%
23	Photo Editor	0.41%
24	Specialist	0.41%
25	Lead Photographer	0.41%
26	Customer Service Trainer	0.37%
27	Freelance Videographer/editor	0.37%
28	Photographer Assistant	0.36%
29	Studio Manager	0.33%
30	Creative Director	0.33%
31	Teller	0.33%
32	Supervisor	0.32%
33	Associate	0.32%
34	Social Media Manager	0.31%
35	Staff Photographer	0.28%
36	Security Officer	0.28%
37	Assistant	0.28%
38	Marketing Internship	0.27%
39	Teacher Assistant	0.27%
40	Owner/operator	0.27%
41	Technician	0.26%
42	Videographer	0.26%
43	Product Photographer	0.26%
44	Editor	0.26%
45	Front Desk Receptionist	0.26%
46	Events Photographer	0.25%
47	Customer Service Associate	0.25%
48	Photographer/photo Editor	0.25%
49	Barista	0.24%
50	Certified Nursing Assistant	0.24%
51	Marketing Manager	0.23%
52	Marketing Assistant	0.23%
53	Instructor	0.22%
54	Graphic Artist	0.22%
55	Account Manager	0.22%
56	Video Editor	0.22%
57	Preschool Teacher	0.2%
58	Pharmacist Technician	0.2%
59	Delivery Driver	0.2%
60	Nanny	0.2%
61	Operations Manager	0.2%
62	Bartender Server	0.19%
63	Director Of Photography	0.19%
64	Department Manager	0.19%
65	Cook	0.19%
66	Medical Assistant	0.19%
67	Merchandiser	0.19%
68	Graphic Designer And Photographer	0.19%
69	Sales Consultant	0.19%
70	Sports Photographer	0.19%
71	Home Health Aid	0.19%
72	Assistant Store Manager	0.19%
73	Crew Member	0.18%
74	Sales Manager	0.18%
75	Marketing Coordinator	0.18%
76	Wedding Photographer	0.18%
77	Waitress	0.18%
78	Consultant	0.18%
79	Machine Operator	0.18%
80	Laboratory Technician	0.17%
81	Team Leader	0.17%
82	Driver	0.17%
83	Reporter	0.17%
84	Warehouse Associate	0.17%
85	Camera Operator	0.17%
86	Customer Care Representative	0.17%
87	Hostess	0.17%
88	Senior Photographer	0.17%
89	Portrait Photographer	0.17%
90	Research Assistant	0.17%
91	Sales Associate And Customer Service	0.16%
92	Security Guard	0.16%
93	Coach	0.16%
94	Photography Assistant	0.16%
95	Web Designer	0.16%
96	Art Director	0.16%
97	Director	0.16%
98	Owner/manager	0.16%
99	Customer Service Specialist	0.15%
100	Sales Associate And Cashier	0.15%

Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

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