New to acting? Here are a few tips that you’ll want to keep in mind for the rest of your career.

  1. Practice your craft. If you aren’t performing in any roles, take classes. Take lots of classes. Study with lots of different coaches and study lots of different types of acting. Study acting-related things too, like dance, singing, makeup and marketing classes. Always be practicing your craft.
  2. Learn to network effectively. Otherwise you’ll find yourself wasting lots of time or getting nowhere. Networking is essentially making professional friends. Apply the same tactics you might to making friends to networking.
  3. Make time for your appearance. Your physical appearance might be your biggest tool as an actor. Use it. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can ignore your appearance. It says something about you either way, so take control of that impression and use it to your advantage.
  4. Get a website. A real, true, professional website. Not a Facebook page or a free site that tells everyone it was free. Only a professional site says you invest in your career. You need one of these to be a professional now.
  5. Don’t skip good photos. Not that great photos will necessarily land you the job, but bad photos can definitely keep you from getting called in at all.
  6. Read. There are lots of great books for actors. Read them.
  7. Sleep. Don’t underestimate the power and importance of sleep. Get a full nights rest as often as you possibly can, especially the night before a performance or audition.
  8. Know your type. Not that you always have to play your type, but at the very least you should know what it is.
  9. Always be prepared and on-time. Be sure you are ready and have whatever supplies you might need. Pencils, highlighters, your script? Whatever it is, make sure you’ve got when it really matters, so no one has to wait around on you.
  10. Get used to rejection and stop taking it personally. Not getting the part doesn’t mean you’re bad. Sometimes it means you were too tall or too short. Or maybe you were the only blonde and would look out of place in the family unit.