Mayne Jay can chime in on this. He is a Maya digital artist in the UK. He would be the best one to comment.
My observations are that it's a pretty fluid vocation. Studios hire you when they need stuff then let you go when the project is done or the studio folds. It is the kind of career that would give me an ulcer and chronic stress but if you know a doctor that can supply endless quantities of Xanax then it might work out. (jk)
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675