Finding The Right Actor Day Job
How Not to Let it Run Your Life and Ruin Your Acting Career
This conundrum is best visualized as a three-legged stool. One leg represents earning a living wage. The second leg symbolizes having the flexibility to take off from work when the need arises to go to an audition. Finally, the last leg epitomizes having a job that allows you to come back to it after the project is finished and picking up where you left off. Remove any one leg from the stool and it won’t stand – and your acting career will end up in limbo.
The Balancing Act
To find the day job that best fits these three requirements will take some effort on your part. But if you’re smart and curious, which most actors are, then you can find the right day job – just “think outside the box.” Don’t limit yourself to just waiting tables or working as a temp for hire. So many actors fall into these kinds of jobs simply because their friends are doing it or they think that anything more sophisticated will demand too much of their time and end up stifling their career. This is simply not so.
When to Start Looking
Perhaps you already have a day job but sense that it’s not the right one. Well, if you have not gone to a single interview, taken an acting class or gone to one audition in the last month because of your day job, ask yourself, “Did I come all this way, put up with all this hardship, to end up being tied to a day job that’s holding me back from pursuing my dreams?” If the answer is, “Yes!” then it’s time to start looking for a new one.
When you’re looking for your day job, be as up front with your potential employer as possible concerning your needs as an actor. Let them know that you want the flexibility to go to auditions as well as the option of working different hours if, and when, you get acting work. If that flexibility isn’t possible, then keep looking.
Some Day Job Ideas
To give you a kick start, here is a short list of day jobs that actors typically find themselves doing:
- Waiting tables (big surprise there)
- Retail sales
- Carpentry or any of the construction trades
- Legal proofreading
- Temp work
- Telemarketing
- Any kind of freelance selling job
- Personal assistant
- Aerobics instructor
- Massage therapist
- Personal trainer
- Pet care
- Mortgage broker
- Catering
- Tax accountant
- Bartending
- Gardening or groundskeeping
You may have noticed that many of the jobs listed here are ones where you are in business for yourself and setting your own hours – such as massage therapist, gardener or freelance salesman. You may not be able to find work that lets you be the boss of your own time right away, but hang in there because it’s worth it!
Three Important Questions
Now, if none of these employment ideas get you excited and you’re still at a loss, then ask yourself these three questions.
- “What skill(s) do I possess that can be turned into a money-making day job with the flexibility I need?”
- “Am I willing to learn some new skills in order to get the day job I want?”
- “Do I want to work for myself or for someone else?”
So to wrap up, remember the three legs of the stool, that your skills have a wide variety of uses, and to “think outside the box.” Good Luck!
Your day job
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