The industry has been through a lot over the past 15 years. Toy Story brought CG animation front and center in 1995 and changed the craft forever. Drawing in animation kept many folks employed and called for a mentoring structure to learn the craft. These mentoring structures embraced the more experienced. Today, the playing field is leveled with the advent of computers and schools teaching a vast supply of animators that outweigh the demand. Mentoring structures created by employers among the workforce are no more. Veterans to the industry are competing with entry level animators for the same jobs.
The veterans are being swept to the side for the young and cheap. This may seem like a good thing to the newly graduated animators, but my advice to them is save every dime...because your time will come. This new standard creates very short life span for the occupation of animator. You can work until you are about 40 and then you are considered expensive and not malleable enough for the ever-changing pipelines in technology. Keep this in mind young animator and have a back-up plan beyond 40. The TAG Blog has a great posting about this that you should read if you are interested in your future in animation and the longevity of the job.
Dangerous Fifties