YOU'RE HIRED!

Tips for landing your first full-time drone gig

- MARK TAYLOR

My team at Extreme Aerial Productions currently consists of eight people, but it took a lot of trial and error to determine the exact qualities I was looking for in new hires. I now have a much better idea of the best way to interview candidates and the qualities to look for in new employees. If you’re looking for your first full-time drone job, keep reading to find out what potential future employers like me are looking for, and how you can best prepare for the interview process.

CAMERA WORK & EDITING SKILLS

While working in real estate photography as a solo entrepreneur, I quickly discovered I would need extra help to keep up with client demand. I needed someone who could support me as a pilot and camera operator in helping me tell the story, and I also needed someone with solid video and still image editing skills.

I hired my first camera editor to help me take video for a client who built pools. Our edited video showed a butterfly that landed on the pool tile. I told the editor to take it out, but they ignored me, left it in, and sent it to the client. Well, the client absolutely loved it and the finished piece even won an award. From that point on, I said I would never farm out the editing or camera work; it would all stay in-house.

THE INTERVIEW

I always take new candidates on flight tests and give them video to edit to compare and contrast their technique.

I usually ask them some combination of the following questions:

How would you stylize this?