On the whole outsourcing thing, that is weird. I've heard of some studios doing that, but I've never dealt with outsourcing, unlike the character artists who have to all the time.
One thing that might surprise and depress you is the amount of outsourcing in Environment art. I have done quite a few jobs where environment artist = outsource manager, fixer of crap assets and scene creator. This is more common than a lot of people let on. One of your first questions at an interview should be "what will…
I've worked on a couple of big productions and quite a few smaller ones where the majority of env assets were outsourced. 90% of the env art team were dealing with/fixing/placing out sourced assets. It came as a real shock to me. Look at the credits of big titles, Uncharted and Gears relied heavily on outsourcing. That's…