"Senior" role?
polycounter lvl 12
Hey guys. Just been wondering about this. I understand what a "Lead Artist" is, but I've been having trouble defining what a "Senior Artist" is.
Is it simply an artist with a wealth of experience? Is that dictated by how many years work experience? Or just skill and how much of an expert you are?
If it's about how many years, how many would typically make you Senior?
I've seen Senior roles advertised asking for a minimum of 4 years and others for 8.
Would a Senior be in charge of any other employees in any way? Or is the idea that they would just be so good as an individual that they set an example?
Would you be a "senior" before a "lead"? Or are those roles at a parallel level, with the lead role being more people and project management based, and the senior role....what?
Is it simply an artist with a wealth of experience? Is that dictated by how many years work experience? Or just skill and how much of an expert you are?
If it's about how many years, how many would typically make you Senior?
I've seen Senior roles advertised asking for a minimum of 4 years and others for 8.
Would a Senior be in charge of any other employees in any way? Or is the idea that they would just be so good as an individual that they set an example?
Would you be a "senior" before a "lead"? Or are those roles at a parallel level, with the lead role being more people and project management based, and the senior role....what?
Replies
Lead roles generally involve management of other artists - senior roles generally do not. Therein lies the key difference.
At my last place, the seniors weren't necessarily in charge of other artists (though some were), but they were in charge of whole 'systems'--like one senior was in charge of architecture, another was in charge of a lot of the level layouts, another was in charge of all the face/body variations for the player characters, I was in charge of shaders, lighting, and some tech arty things.
We were all answerable to the leads and the art director, but we were also the ones who held the --specific-- technical and workflow knowledge of various smaller aspects of the project to the leads didn't have to hold expertise in every little thing...
The idea is that leadership isn't for everyone. And if there's someone who's just damn good at programming, or damn good at making art, they're probably most useful if they just keep programming and making art. Pushing them into Lead roles forces them to sit in meetings, flick through spread sheets and write reports and email instead of programming and making art.
There's a book called [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Team-Leadership-Game-Industry-Spaulding/dp/1598635727]Team Leadership in the Game Industry[/ame] which describes the sort of ideal career path. It works up from Juniors, to Intermediates, and then branches. On the one side you get more and more Senior artists. (These guys would, perhaps, be the guys who win various competitions; DomWar, Brawl, etc., and win rep for both themselves and your studio.) On the other branch is the management path, where it's Lead Artists and Art Directors. Pay would scale the same on both sides of the branch. Senior artists have invaluable experience that can be passed on to more junior artists, as well as being able to work very efficiently, and should never feel that they need to become Leads to earn more money or anything, because a Lead without people skills and management skills is an absolute disaster.
It's not that all companies work this way... but they should. :P
Yea, studios are SUPER concerned with what competitions you've won over the years... If you haven't bagged at least 3 trophies, then I wouldn't even bother dreaming about being a senior artist. Do you know how many senior artists are in the industry total..phhh like 20 MAYBE! It's all about dem reps yo, and dropping a deuce on the comp, cause life in this industry is like the Dom War, if you ain't winning that rep for your studio, then you ain't scraping a living.
Preach.
.
.
.
In all seriousness, every studio I've been in treated these rolls very differently. Some studios have Senior as a title, and therefore it effects your salary, but then lead is a project based roll, and therefore it's just something you do for that project, but it's not tied to your salary. Some studios make a large distinction between the two, and senior artists do their art thing, and lead artists, do their lead thing. Again, one is not necessarily above the other (pay wise), but in this case, they are specific titles. And still sometimes, they are direct stepping stones with lead coming after senior, though I don't agree with that at all.
Definitions... I wouldn't say that it's entirely about how long you've been at something professionally. If you come into a very junior studio, and are obviously more talented, knowledgeable than most there, then you could get the title pretty quickly. But a senior artist is typically someone who consistently sets the quality bar, needs no hand holding, is self starting, and typically good at mentoring/training others. Someone could hand you anything to do, and know they are going to get the best out of you, with minimal fuss. They are usually expected to be leaders, but in a different capacity than being a "Lead" is.
The word "Senior" kind of throws me a bit as that implies age (and therefore experience), so I thought it would be largely a question of years worked. But that lead me to how many years worked....4,8,10?
I've been seeing the word "Principal Artist" around now, that would seem to fit the more "hero" role that you described Elyaradine. Someone that has a wealth of experience and is very good at what they do.
By the sounds of it, it's really down to the own studios definition. Some job descriptions explain clearly what your role is, others just seem very general but have one of those titles, leaving you wondering what exactly would be required. Of course that can all be cleared up in an interview.
That was actually one of Spaulding's examples. :P
It's different per studio. I've seen people with the senior title with just a couple of years of XP in a lot of social studios. I imagine that is more a symptom of how recent that entire platform is.
Fomori: Principle is kind of the peak of where you can go as far as promotion goes afaik. Keep in mind that "good" is a very variable term especially when you get into senior and principle titles. I like to think of Valve's philosophy of "adding value." You don't necessarily have to be a great artist to add value to your studio. You could just be extremely knowledgeable, and great at problem solving, or learning new things. Those skills are almost more important than anything else especially in a studio environment as 90% of your day to day will be problem solving/finding better ways to do better things.
Of course people who have worked at the studio longer will make more than someone who just started but it totally eliminates all the issues with giving out meaningless titles like "senior".
Now where'd I put my man-cardigan...
Lead artists are definitely a bit different though, because they tend to spend a lot more time on communication than a regular artist.
seniority often comes with age, but age alone doesn't make you a senior, as you say. Skill alone isn't really enough for me to promote anyone, nor are years spent sitting around.
For me it really comes down to things like maturity, professionalism, reliability and skills. A senior should be an example to juniors when it comes to their work and conduct. Seniors have more freedom in organizing their own work because I can depend on their planning and execution skills. In my team they're also contact points for juniors when they need help. Sometimes they're asked to take charge of juniors when they're assigned to work on a task together, to ensure work is split properly and the right decisions are made. When I'm on leave seniors may be asked to cover certain functions while I'm away, so the team keeps running.
For other places its very important to have that senior structure so to set the benchmark with the leads for quality and productiveness that can spread onto the rest of the team. Its also not a self proclaimed title which makes it even more meaningful to those who get there. Ive been senior for a year since coming off a successful freelance career and its pretty much the same but I know that now my work has to kick butt more than it ever has and require less input/revisions along the way. Setting a good example to the other artists and supporting the leads the best you can.
Leads, in a ideal situation, are seniors with managerial skills. But, any producer could be a lead of any department really. Leads generally don't do any work that isnt schedule based.
I've come to realize that the best lead is a senior. Anyone that defines quality, i want to learn from.