AIBU to want to change career? Animator.

[Animatorcrisis]

Basically I'm a key frame animator very experienced in the video games industry. Might just be the companies I've worked at but only 10% female dev staff and most of those leave as it is a bit of a boys club in higher management so few women get promoted much beyond "mid weight" roles. Especially if you have kids. The only senior(ish) female management is in HR. Probably earning cap of £50k for the female devs.

Basically would I be mad to totally change careers? I love what I do but the glass ceiling feels 20 years behind other industries.

I live in the North West and can't move around (housing costs in my area have gone astronomical, comparable to the South, COL has inspired this thread). I have a masters degree in animation, so am I just too specialised to move careers and what on Earth could I do instead? I'm married, 40, with one young child.

Thanks for reading and for any suggestions. Xx

My husband is also a 3D Animator for games (key framing and mocap when needed). It is not easy to progress in this career from my experience. To go up a pay grade or get a promotion you need to be prepared to move around the country or even move countries. That's what we have found at least, we've moved about half a dozen times in England to chase new job contracts and moved country twice now, we have 2 young kids but I am a SAHM as it helps support all the moves and my husbands career. My husband is about to start a new Lead role but has been an Animator or Senior Animator up until now with 12 years experience. Fingers crossed we are finally in a situation to be settled while the kids attend school and can have a more stable environment.

I can't say if you should give up but maybe you could look at companies offering remote work as this seems to be much more viable now.

Could you move sideways into animation for marketing or the TV/film industry? How broad are your skills, can you rig, model characters or other assets? Could you make your own animations from scratch and form your own studio?

Comparable to the SE... Do you live in South Manchester and work in Cheshire/Central Manchester?
There are plenty of cheaper areas you could move to that's still commutable.

Anyway, @MammaTill2Pojkar is right. Even without the added sexism game Dev is very hard to move up in. I'm a software developer, so is husband, he shared modules with several game Devs etc and it's similar. Quite a few have ended up quitting and becoming UI designers, programmers or similar.

I have friends who have gone into film and commercial animations but not a lot of scope in the North West compared to the South East...

Also OP I won't post my salary here but what exactly are you aiming for?
In my industry 60-70 for an individual contributor/small team lead is quite normal.to break that ceiling you need to be very good or have an in, for the small number of firms that pay a lot. Used to be able to earn more in remote roles but the market's bad now.

You can easily break 100K as a contractor with the obvious downsides

Another thought, could you move into Tech Animation? I understand that that is a higher paying role and possibly a smaller amount of competition too. IF you have the right skillset or can develop the right skillset?

@MammaTill2Pojkar We also moved around alot in the UK in our 20s chasing jobs but bought a house in our 30s and now my kid is at an outstanding primary and thriving and don't really want to uproot that so remote may be an option (although I do thrive in a studio as find it more creative and inspiring and as an extrovert can feel a little isolated WFH)

@Cerialkiller I can only really animate (and layout) in 3D as I worked in larger companies where other devs modelled and rigged and haven't needed to do that since uni 15 years ago, however I originally trained as a hand drawn animator and am currently teaching myself (and doing a course) to rig and animate in toon boom and could probably do the entire pipeline myself in a 2d medium since I can illustrate too. Downside being I might be a little isolated and I like working in a team, but it is an option.

@itakemywhiskeyneaaaaaat you are correct on the area, I agree we could move but the primary school alone is a reason I won't consider it and my child is happy. Also we can afford to be here even though there's some compromises, we're not on the bones of our arse (I've been there before, after the 2009 financial crash and we both lost our jobs and were renting privately), just starting to feel the pinch a bit but we're safe. I agree there is probably alot more opportunity down South to do this sort of move though.

Quite frankly £70k would be a bloody dream and we'd be very comfortable.

I do not have the right skillset, tech animator starts to veer into alot of scripting and exporting into engine/working with programmers. I always found that the most challenging part when I was an animator so not something I could naturally lean into. I appreciate it is better paid and for very good reason, animators are just fannying about making something look and feel good which is fun, tech animators help make the bloody thing work in the actual game which is (to me) the boring bit. 😅A good tech animator is rightly worth their weight in gold.

Understandable, my husband likes to dabble in a bit of scripting, mainly automating some animation processes to reduce repetitive clicking and saving a bit of time, but, like you, he would never want to be a Tech Animator, he has always wanted to be a 3D Animator. It really is just fannying about making minor adjustments until stuff looks good 😂

Well in that case, I can't comment on animator adjacent roles, but you could become a UX/UI designer. Plenty of scope to achieve the salary you want, contract opportunities, etc. if you have an eye for design, it'll be easy to transition. There are some good free courses online like the Google UX certificate.

Finding people with good design sense is hard, so there are consultancies around Manchester that will take someone looking to get a foot in, with a good portfolio.

Everybody and their dog wants to get into 'tech' these days. The usual way is to do a bootcamp (which is usually web development), take some 'cloud' or 'data' qualifications. But you find scripting challenging so this won't work for you. Plus, too much competition!

Okay brill thanks for the suggestion, I'll have a look. Tbf I've got access to LinkedIn learning at the mo so worth a dabble on an evening to see if any other gloves fit.

I think half my problem is the amount of money floating around my DC's peers parents and the wages I see reported on Mumsnet and I keep thinking Christ I've got all of this experience, qualifications and specialist knowledge (and the job can be quite intense/stressful) and I'm not making much more than an average salary in a very expensive part of the country.

Perhaps I should just be happy where I am. 😅

Well OP none of those things automatically equate to high pay. An ICU specialist nurse for example will have all those.. and no matter how stressful or intense your job is, your errors won't cost lives. Unlike theirs.

You didn't say how much you make personally - and I don't know how much you're comparing to . But, say 40K is a good salary for the North West. I wouldn't call it 'not much more than average'. However it's a pittance in the South East.

You could move to a cheaper area and still be able to commute easily and comfortably. Something that's impossible in the SE. Of course you come into contact with a lot of high earners, you bought in a very expensive and desirable area. The only people who'd be able to move there with school age children would have a very good income, they also probably value education and are willing to pay for it which correlates with being a higher earner.

They're not the norm, so you shouldn't feel bad about yourself. Change jobs because you want to and it suits you to earn more. Not because of everyone else...

Also because a lot of higher earners target money
They choose with a view to making £££.
Will a different career make you happy?