I posted this a while ago on a different thread but some might find it helpful here as well since it pertains to the questions @DoinResearch raised.
My D graduated with her BFA in Acting in May. I think I should preface this by saying that my husband and I agreed before my D went to college for her BFA that we would financially and emotionally support her for as long as we could once she graduated since we felt that was only fair given how difficult it is to make it in this field and since we wanted her to have the best chance possible to make it. We also look at her first few years after graduation as her graduate school. If she went to graduate school for a degree in another field, we would have helped pay for her room and board, so instead we are paying for “real life graduate school.” Her promise to us was that upon graduation she would commit herself 100% to finding work and if she decided that it was no longer her passion she would turn her energy elsewhere. I understand that there are some kids who have been able to work and support themselves right out of school. I am impressed! This has not been the case for my D so we continue to help support her. So far, her passion has not waned.
She is living in NYC in a tiny little apartment with a roommate and working her butt off to make it as a working actress. This means that everyday she has 2 or 3 auditions, which not only require the time it takes to get to the audition and the time at the audition itself but also the prep time of getting familiar with the script for each of these auditions. In order to get these auditions she spends a few hours each day scouring the emails from the boards she belongs to that match her with auditions. She then spends time submitting herself for the auditions. She also does workshops and takes classes so that she doesn’t get stale. This all takes a lot of time. For those who think having an agent upon graduation will eliminate some of this work, unfortunately, that is not the case. My D does have an agent and although they do send her out on quality auditions that she would probably not be able to go to if she didn’t have an agent, those only add up to 1 or 2 auditions a week and are extremely competitive. So, if she wants to work continuously she needs to line up more auditions and jobs on her own. As @artskids mentioned, it is very rare that anything just comes to you in this business. You need to be out there hustling everyday, be creative, and network. Your skin has to be even thicker than the skin you grew during college auditions. You will hear no almost everyday and sometimes numerous times a day. You will go on auditions and never hear back one way or another. You will be told you are perfect for the part and then hear nothing. You will be called back 4 or 5 times only to be told that the chemistry reading didn’t go well so you don’t get the part. I truly believe you can only do this if you cannot see yourself doing anything else.
So far she has done a few off broadway plays, a few indy films, a web series pilot, and some voice over work. Nothing that has paid a lot but each job seems to be paying a little more than the last.
We quickly realized that all of this time spent looking for work meant that all she could swing in terms of jobs were the typical very flexible hostessing/waitressing/baby sitting jobs so that she never had to say to an auditon or feel ill prepared when she got to an audition because she was working at some other job. Because missing one audition, might mean that she missed the one that was going to be her break. So we help support her. And that is what we signed up for when we agreed that she could pursue this career path. I understand that not everyone agrees with our plan but everyone needs to do what they feel comfortable doing.