Some photographers were more technicians than artists, others the other way round, some a bit of both, all were a vague mixture of lunatics, egoists, generally benign nutcases.
Some liked everything nailed to the floor, some worked by the seat of their pants. The older ones were lucky enough to have worked in New York in the '50's where the streets did seem to be paved with gold (no longer).
It was generally good fun, very long days, very badly paid.
I only ever had one full time job, which I left for 2 weeks of freelance. From then I was either self employed or self unemployed.
I think I was lucky to work with most of the very good guys working in London, as well as some who weren't such good photographers but were good fun.
I was also lucky to work with good magazines, meeting a vast variety of people, from Kings to 'totters.'