If You Can't Take the Heat... Salary: $20,000 

You left a very hot light unattended—a light which just so happened to be right up against a huge curtain. Congrats, you burned down your community theater. Nice work. And this was going to be such a phenomenal production of Nunsense, too.

"Lots" of Lighting. Salary: $38,000 

You make a living designing the lighting for parking lots and public parks. It's a regular paycheck, but it isn't the most fulfilling of jobs. The only park you want to light is Fenway, but you'll have to focus on small-time jobs before making that dream come true.

Under the (Kinda) Bright Lights. Salary: $52,000 

You live in New York and hop from gig to gig doing lighting design for a number of off-Broadway productions. You light even more off-off-off-off-Broadway productions, but you don't like to tell people about those.

Designated Designer. Salary: $70,000 

You're a well-respected lighting designer in Hollywood, almost never without a new project lined up to work on. You've worked on some big films, too—it's almost like this whole lighting design thing is working out as planned.

Adding to the Trophy Case. Salary: $88,000 

You've just brought home your third Technical Achievement Award, this time for your work on a film entitled Sunrise, Sunset. It featured plenty of both. Still, it'd be cooler if the Scientific and Technical Awards were televised—but oh well. You didn't get into this business to be in front of the camera anyway.