Live data from Hacker News

About 90% of Animators Quit Their Jobs Within 3 Years

animenewsnetwork.com

11–20 of 111 posts

Re: About 90% of Animators Quit Their Jobs Within 3 Years

#11
post #4

I'm curious what data is underlying the claim in the headline. Are these animators leaving the industry entirely, or just quitting one job and taking another?

There’s a digital agency that does a lot of animation across the street from me. The normal car you see in the lot is a 2006 Kia. They are mostly 1099 workers doing multiple things.

The other thing about art creatives is that many get suckered into fancy art schools, and have insane debt loads.

Re: About 90% of Animators Quit Their Jobs Within 3 Years

#12
post #8

Most people are probably best off with good jobs that sound boring but are highly demanded. Could be plumber or software engineer or accountant or whatever. People are happy to see you, happy when you do your job, and pay you well. People work as a team rather than compete. Don't underestimate the value of pleasantness in day to day interactions. Cool sounding jobs are competitive and you are likely to be treated poo…

Does software engineering sound boring ?

Re: About 90% of Animators Quit Their Jobs Within 3 Years

#13
post #8

Most people are probably best off with good jobs that sound boring but are highly demanded. Could be plumber or software engineer or accountant or whatever. People are happy to see you, happy when you do your job, and pay you well. People work as a team rather than compete. Don't underestimate the value of pleasantness in day to day interactions. Cool sounding jobs are competitive and you are likely to be treated poo…

Does software engineering sound boring ?

Sure, people don’t get excited and ask me more when I say I work on mortgage software.

If I said I’m a game developer you can bet that’d be way less “boring” sounding.

Re: About 90% of Animators Quit Their Jobs Within 3 Years

#14
post #8

Most people are probably best off with good jobs that sound boring but are highly demanded. Could be plumber or software engineer or accountant or whatever. People are happy to see you, happy when you do your job, and pay you well. People work as a team rather than compete. Don't underestimate the value of pleasantness in day to day interactions. Cool sounding jobs are competitive and you are likely to be treated poo…

Does software engineering sound boring ?

Yes. Sometimes, when my spouse is really having trouble sleeping, she asks me to tell her about something I'm working on. About 30 seconds in, dead asleep.

Re: About 90% of Animators Quit Their Jobs Within 3 Years

#15
post #8

Most people are probably best off with good jobs that sound boring but are highly demanded. Could be plumber or software engineer or accountant or whatever. People are happy to see you, happy when you do your job, and pay you well. People work as a team rather than compete. Don't underestimate the value of pleasantness in day to day interactions. Cool sounding jobs are competitive and you are likely to be treated poo…

So I’m an animator and I’d like to work on my craft. I’d also like a comfortable living, nothing outrageous by American standards. I’m not interested in the “job” of animator (unless something really wild came along), because these jobs don’t sound very appealing. It is very competitive, a “dream job” that attracts lots of young artists willing to work to death for a chance to break in to the business, but with relatively low pay and low jongterm job security.

I have a day job doing computerish things and I produce films in my spare time. I envy the industry people for:

- the creative community - the opportunity to make complex projects - access to production funds, assistants, software, etc. - the distribution and marketing apparatus to get the work seen

The internet solves some of these problems but not all. Generally speaking, YouTube is a terrible deal for animators. Patreon is great but you can’t bootstrap a new thing without having built an audience elsewhere. I’m still searching for a good ecosystem for indie stuff.

Re: About 90% of Animators Quit Their Jobs Within 3 Years

#16
post #8

Most people are probably best off with good jobs that sound boring but are highly demanded. Could be plumber or software engineer or accountant or whatever. People are happy to see you, happy when you do your job, and pay you well. People work as a team rather than compete. Don't underestimate the value of pleasantness in day to day interactions. Cool sounding jobs are competitive and you are likely to be treated poo…

Does software engineering sound boring ?

It doesn't have to be boring to you. But I will admit that as a college student, when I had a summer internship in a government computer facility, I came away with the impression that while I enjoyed programming when I could do it on my own terms, an actual programming job would be boring.

But instead of boring, you could substitute unpleasant or unglamorous, and the point still stands pretty well. For instance, fixing a toilet is usually not particularly hard, but something that most people are repulsed by.

Re: About 90% of Animators Quit Their Jobs Within 3 Years

#17
post #4

I'm curious what data is underlying the claim in the headline. Are these animators leaving the industry entirely, or just quitting one job and taking another?

I think they quit the anime jobs entirely and move to more marketable jobs like graphics design. This 90% claim is more or less anecdotal, as I read that the industry veterans say that they saw only 1 out of 10 young people survived in this industry. Many work environments are similar to each other: there's no written contract and they have almost no unemployment insurance, etc. I don't understand how those anime lovers turn blind eyes to this and still somehow "enjoy" anime. It's horrible, horrible stuff.

A detailed survey in Japanese: http://www.janica.jp/survey/survey2019Report.pdf

Re: About 90% of Animators Quit Their Jobs Within 3 Years

#18
post #8

Most people are probably best off with good jobs that sound boring but are highly demanded. Could be plumber or software engineer or accountant or whatever. People are happy to see you, happy when you do your job, and pay you well. People work as a team rather than compete. Don't underestimate the value of pleasantness in day to day interactions. Cool sounding jobs are competitive and you are likely to be treated poo…

Does software engineering sound boring ?

> boring

In 1983 I spent a few months working on a crud app. Finished it and never worked on another.

Re: About 90% of Animators Quit Their Jobs Within 3 Years

#19

It's like all those jobs - game developer, film jobs, graphic artist, artist, musician - too many young people want to do it and there's a lot of money if you're successful so it attracts sharks up the top who keep all the money. Just don't is my advice, unless you have a trust fund, which a large number of those successful have, you can weather out the early years then until you make a name for yourself.

Yep, all the fun jobs have horrible work environments because people stick to it even if the job sucks. I'm a big fan of the boring jobs. If its not working out, you just leave and go somewhere else so employers have to compete by making the job more attractive in other ways. There is even a wiki page for this concept https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compensating_differential

[deleted]

Re: About 90% of Animators Quit Their Jobs Within 3 Years

#20

It's like all those jobs - game developer, film jobs, graphic artist, artist, musician - too many young people want to do it and there's a lot of money if you're successful so it attracts sharks up the top who keep all the money. Just don't is my advice, unless you have a trust fund, which a large number of those successful have, you can weather out the early years then until you make a name for yourself.

I'm rather fond of the story of the Pulitzer prizewinning poet Wallace Stevens, who worked as an insurance attorney by day, and did his writing during his free time. He considered his unexciting day job to be something that enabled him to do his writing, by giving his life a stable foundation that left plenty of mental resources remaining for doing what he loved.

Some choice quotes on the subject:

"It is necessary to any originality to have the courage to be an amateur."

"It gives a man character as a poet to have a daily contact with a job. I doubt whether I've lost a thing by leading an exceedingly regular and disciplined life."

Post reply on HN