Why quit a comfortable job?

If you ever thought about starting your own visual FX CG house? Marc Bourbonnais has written a blog about his experience doing just that. Here is one of the early entries...

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Why quit a comfortable job?

Posted on June 3rd, 2007 in The Company, Working in CG by Marc Bourbonnais

Yes, I had a nice job in a fine establishment (Hybride) with excellent working conditions. All this doing digital effects on high-profile movies. So why quit and risk starting something new?

Here is a basic structure of responsibilities for digital FX work in motion pictures, per department and area of expertise:

1. Producer
2. Supervisor
3. Department Leader
4. Team Leader
5. Technical Director
6. Senior Specialist
7. Specialist
8. Generalist
9. Junior

This is a very simplified list with generic terms (feel free to comment) and could be applied to other fields. Of course you can be quite happy and successful in a career as a specialized matte painter, modeler or animator, like many of my friends. I always preferred broadening my knowledge and taking on new responsibilities instead of aiming for excellence in a particular field.

Starting off as a junior 3D generalist, I made my way up to Lead Technical Director of the 3D department at Hybride. That being said, right up to the end my duties involved getting down to more generalist-type work from time to time, if it could help getting the job done. Everything was great and I liked the varied challenges that came with my particular title. But the past few months, a thought regularly crept up:

“What’s next?”

The company already had a good team of supervisors and producers. With 10 years experience I did not want to start all over again learning a new specialty. So I came to the conclusion that I did all I could do at my old job, and it was time to give a shot at producing, in a completely new venue. This blog will be my story.

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