Any Sydneysiders working for Yo Yo?

[Grumby]

I found and answered an ad for enthusiasts keen to start a career in photography, doing part-time evening/weekend work for a Sydney studio (?) called Yo Yo. I've spoken with (presumably) the proprietor via email, and she says she sees "talent and passion" in the example work I showed her (I'll bet she says that to all the boys ), and invited me along for an interview.

However - I subsequently discovered their website, and was a little disturbed to see that they seem to want you to stump up $500 for some training first, and then they say that if you pass the course, they will find work for you... It sounds like a bit of a scam to me, but then again, it's my first contact with the freelance/casual photography business. Maybe this is quite normal for this type of position? I'm not really sure if Yo Yo is an actual studio, or if they just facilitate getting freelance photographers and clients together.

I was wondering if there are any other Sydneysiders out there that have heard of Yo Yo, may have worked for them, or are working for them, and can give me the low down?

Cheers
Grum.

[lonni]

I would say that they are just looking to make some money from you. We had a simmilar deal for graphic designgers run few years ago.

They get real cheap rates for advertising a job vacancy, money for the training and maybe get you a job or two but they will probably hit you up later for money to advertise your self or have your work on their website.

If you are working free lance they pay you for your work, ususlly after you have supplied proofs and they have selected the images. sometimes you get a bit of a deposit against the ecpected out come.

Be very carefull, dont agree to anything till you have read the fine print.

HTH

[Grumby]

Thanks for the heads-up Lauren. Your comment about cheap advertising rings true - the ad was on Gumtree - not a mainline job search like Seek or myCareer... I guess it's the old addage... if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

If I do follow up - I will go in with a suitably cautious stance.

Cheers
Grum