‘I Love My Job’: Creative Opportunities, Unique Challenges, and a Supportive Culture
Welcome to I Love My Job, the series where we hear from women who really love their jobs. In this edition, we sat down with Jessi Foster, a photographer at Zillow Media Experts .
Jessi Foster turns strangers into friends while shooting their homes for Zillow. Entering a space when homeowners are eager to make it appear as perfect as possible requires warmth and empathy, and demands a personable approach. It’s her comforting presence, combined with her creative eye and technical camera skills that make Foster successful in her career. And it’s Zillow’s culture of support that keeps her climbing higher.
“Opportunities continue to come my way because I've been super vocal about wanting to be involved, and [Zillow] has been super responsive to it,” she tells Fairygodboss. “I genuinely really love working for Zillow.”
Foster leans on her content specialist team to show up to shoots prepared—but just as ready to pivot the plan if necessary. They toss around ideas and tackle challenges together, so inevitable hurdles become welcome ways to learn and grow.
In the video below, Foster shares more about the fun photography and videography opportunities she’d had, the support from her manager and content specialist team, and the culture of openness at Zillow that welcomes all kinds of creative ideas. We also provide lightly edited highlights from the video discussion in the following article.
Tell us your name, your role, and how you came into this line of work. What drew you to Zillow specifically—and what makes you stay?
What drew me to Zillow was the experience that I had already gained thanks to my parents and the education that I had gotten. My parents are real estate agents. In college, I took pictures for all of their listings, and that's when Matterport just came out. I was able to get creative on the marketing side and get my bachelor's degree in video production.
What makes me stay is this supportive work environment that Zillow has as a foundation, and both growth and the flexibility that comes along with everything. The team is great. Everyone works together. Everyone is on the same side. We all just want to create really cool stuff for every realtor's listing, and I really love that.
Can you walk us through a typical shoot day—from gear prep to editing?
Steps throughout my day include the night before prepping everything, charging all of the batteries, and making sure I have all the equipment laid out that I'm going to have to use for the next day. So, in the morning, I'm not rushing and figuring that stuff out. It's already there, already prepped.
We do drive sometimes outside of Austin—sometimes further distances.
What’s the most challenging part of the job that people on the outside might not expect?
The biggest challenge I feel throughout the day is not knowing the homeowner. You're interacting with strangers every day, and you're in their home, which is a very vulnerable place for them to be. They're trying to get their house ready for a sale. It's super high stress. But it's also my favorite part because I enter as a stranger and we leave as friends because I realize I play a super crucial part in capturing their home in the best way possible.
You’re a part of Zillow’s Cloud HQ, but you’re out in the field, covering homes across your assigned region. What’s that experience really like? What do people need to know about the travel, flexibility, or rhythm of the work?
I'm based in Austin and I drive out. Sometimes I stay in Austin, but sometimes I have to drive out an hour and a half to Wimberley or to Killeen. Sometimes, it’s 45 minutes to Bastrop or New Braunfels or San Marcos.
You really have to make sure the day before how far the drive is because that plays a huge role in your day and how long it may be. You may have like three shoots, but the drives may be longer. So you're going to have a much fuller day than you may have expected.
What advice would you give to other women looking to work at Zillow, and what do they need to know, not just hear?
These realtors and homeowners are going to remember your face associated with the brand. And when your core values align with each other, it makes it so much better. I have so many realtors who love to continuously work with me because whenever they think of Zillow, they think of me. It's because of my personable characteristics along with the delivery of the footage that we're able to capture to make sure their listing is incredible. So yeah, you're sort of doing it by yourself with a lot of support on the backend, which is awesome.
What’s the most rewarding part of your role?
The most rewarding part of my role is the opportunities I get to collaborate on at Zillow. With my background in video production, the content specialist team values my perspective, and we work really well together. No ideas are dismissed—we build on each other’s creativity, which makes the work both innovative and fun.
At Zillow, innovation drives everything we do in video and social content. These spaces evolve quickly, but Zillow is very good about staying ahead of the curve. Instead of shutting down bold ideas, the team embraces them. That openness fuels collaboration, letting us bounce around creative concepts and bring them to life together.
What’s a moment that tested you—but helped you grow?
During one of my first shoots… I had this great producer who had this amazing shot list and schedule for me—to a tee. But when I showed up, things didn’t go as planned. With some people arriving late, the whole schedule was off and it caused so much chaos.I just had to set that schedule to the side and say, “Alright, we're going to have to go off the cuff.”
It was a great team effort with the brokerage team and everybody else. Often, people aren’t thinking about how sound travels in a tight space or how tricky it can be to capture clean interviews—but that’s where my expertise comes in.
So whenever you have to just go off the cuff and it's time to change things and flip things, and then the teams still love what you were able to create, that's a really, really great feeling. I love challenges like that.
What’s one way Zillow has had your back in this role, big or small?
Zillow has had my back big and small and in so many different ways. To start off with, every month you get a stipend of $75 to $150 for equipment reimbursement. You're using your equipment every day for five days a week. So it's really good to have everything up to date. And so whenever you're on site, you don't run into any issues.
The mileage reimbursement is also extremely helpful, especially whenever you're driving longer distances. So your car doesn’t have issues… and so you get paid for all of that travel time. They also provide $75 for a gym membership every month, which I think is a great thing for your physical health and your mental health to just prioritize taking care of your body. I absolutely love that aspect of Zillow.
I really do have to give a huge shout out to my manager. l. She's incredible. The communication is so strong, and she will do the impossible to make sure we're all taken care of and that the client is super satisfied.
What kind of mindset or skills set someone up to thrive here?
Some advice I would give you if you're looking to join the Zillow real estate photography team is to own your own camera. Have your hands on that camera. You don't have to know everything about it. Zillow is going to teach you HDR, and they're going to teach you multi-bracketing systems. They're going to teach you how to use it the way that you need to, to provide the content that they need to market. But they do want you to own your own camera and be hands on… They just wanna make sure that you have a DSLR yourself.
Another word of advice is to just be yourself. Everyone loves working with human beings who have personalities. They love to see your personality shine. Don't feel the need to hold back within any means. Just be kind and courteous. You're entering people's homes; they're super stressed out. So if you're able to relieve any kind of stress in that area, it's a huge deal. Just make sure the authenticity part of yourself is turned on, just based on how much people love working with you.
What is your biggest takeaway for the viewers? What do you want everyone to know?
This job is incredibly supportive. You have so much team camaraderie and kindness surrounding you every day. I feel like I want to be with Zillow forever. I want to be a “Zillow lifer” because of the way everyone prioritizes supporting one another.
Whenever there is an issue that arises, it's more of a fun project that we all figure out together. It's such a healthy work environment. I've come from environments that haven't been healthy. I've come from environments that have been healthy. And, still, nothing compares to being under Zillow's belt. It feels great.
They want you to succeed. They want you to be as successful as you want to be.
Interested in joining the Zillow team? They’re hiring! Click the link below to browse opportunities.
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