Some artist just didn't know what they like to do..especially if they're still students or fresh graduates. They tend to do everything rather than focusing on one particular area. This is because most of the schools are still implementing this system, where they throw everything at you and get you to do a lot of useless modules. But a really good school should have a specialization from the early on, like Ringling and Calarts for Animation, or Vancouver Film School for modeling and VFX.
I know it's good for students to get to know what the medium is about, but keep this in mind, you have to decide from early on what you wanted to focused on. 3D is a very broad field, and there are lot of choices that you can pick to be focused on. Whether it's modeling, texturing, animation, lighting, rendering, FX, etc..etc.. it's endless. You can't do everything all together, remember an old saying "Jack of all trades, a master of nothing." You need to pick your choice and focused on it! That is why I gave up my previous job as a generalist, and focused on becoming a professional animator. Because that's what I wanted to do!
To be honest with you, even after I worked in the professional environment, I knew just a little about animation and it's art form. Hell, I don't even learn anything back in University, I even have to build my own reel from the scratch after I graduated to get to the industry because my final thesis sucks! (yes, it is) At that time, my brain and eyes keep telling me that there's something wrong with my animation, but I didn't have the knowledge and technique that I needed from the school. But even after that, I can see that my animation is still not that good, because I lack the basic to make a good animation.
So I decided to start all over again. I begin to seriously studying the 12 principles of animation, reading a lot of books (Illusion of Life and The Animator's Survival Kit is the most recommended material for animators) I watch a lot of Disney classics and cartoons, and also listening to the 9 Old Men of Disney. I started researching and investigating different ways of animating. I looked at workflows, breakdown reels, sent emails to animators, looked at demo reels, student work, AM blogs... I also started looking more and more at 2D animation and appreciating it much more than I had before. To tell you the truth, I quickly became near obsessed with the process of blocking animation, treating each pose like a drawing, and thinking more and more in a 2D way. And I really wanted to understand it and to work that way.
Well said, all I'm saying is think about this carefully. 3D and animation is very hard, and it takes a long time to learn, so you want to be heading in the right direction as early as you can.
Hope that helps.