A Conversation: Job Tiers & Breaking In the Industry

When it comes to getting better and landing better jobs, it is not a linear path like one might expect. Because there are only so many projects being made, there is not always room for new talent. I made a chart to explain the situation.

There are only so many companies and projects available to work on, so the S tier artists (these are your production designers, art directors, super stars) after they wrap up their S tier projects, there isn't another S tier project to move onto, so they take up a lower level jobs in the A Tier or even B Tier. Companies know this, so the A and B projects instead of hiring A and B level artists, they try to get the S tier artists when they come off of their S tier projects. The S level artists end up taking most of the jobs in the industry, and the A tier artists fill the rest of the available spots.

This leaves B, C, D tier artists with only D and maybe C level jobs, which are often boring and don't pay enough. So for a lot of aspiring artists, the journey seems exhausting and grueling because while it seems like they are improving from D to C to B levels, they aren't able to "move up" or even "break in" at all.

The only solution left is to beat out the competition, and while grind culture breeds a lot of mental issues and toxic behaviors, the reality here is that there aspiring artists out there who are more hungry, more disciplined, or simply more privileged and they are in perfect situations to sit at their desks and pour 16+ hours a day into art for years and years and they are the ones who end up taking all the jobs. It is not fair, but there is no way around that. Add on top the disparity of living costs all over the world, making it more enticing for companies to outsource and hire cheaper labor.

It is definitely a problem, but these barriers are by no means arbitrary imo. I fully sympathize with those who are struggling to break in, and it's the reason why we made Resolution to try to empower artists and give them more access and resources so they are ready when the opportunities present themselves