In college, my theater professor used to reserve Fridays for answering our questions about the business of acting. One of the most important things he ever said was, “Every day, make sure you do something that makes you feel like an actor.”
At the time, I didn’t understand what he meant. How could I? I was in back-to-back shows. I lived, ate, slept, breathed theater.
Years later, as I began my career in New York, doing very unglamorous things like going to cattle call auditions for the role of Girl #4 (in trunk) and doing Moliere plays for audiences of two at 10 p.m. on Tuesdays, I started to get what he meant. But it wasn’t until I had to really depend on the income of my day job that his message really hit home.
Traveling around and speaking at a number of Universities I am often struck by the number of students that leave the actual business of finding a job right to the last minute, as secondary to all things academic. Whilst I understand this, there is a danger that you (the student) leave with your qualification but then you have to scramble very quickly to find that job. But I know that you can already handle a number of different tasks simultaneously. After all, life at University isn’t one project and then another, but more a series of projects all at the same time. With that in mind you can add in another project whilst studying which is namely, building your contact database.
