Funny to see that ppl who rarely post or reply all of a sudden post as first ones when it says "professional" in the title.

Me, I'm an editor/compositor, that's how I came in contact with 3d. (Started out as an editor, learned compositing, now doing 3d cgi integration too). Shake, FCP, Motion, Combustion, CS2, etc...
The possibilities in Maya (or 3D apps are gargantuous) but a lot of stuff to finish it off is compositing (a bit underestimated in 3D communities I find it!). Nonetheless I became interested in 3D too, a whole 3 months in actually doing stuff (like modeling and rendering). Great to see that online tutorials and even DVD's can help you forward to a certain degree. Passed that you can really use a bit of real-life feedback to advance at a faster pace.

So not really using Maya as a professional app., I use it to freewheel and make some cool stuff for myself.
Although, If I would get the time, I would love to become an overall skilled 3d vfx/sfx artist.

Gr.
M.