You need the following essential items before you even get your first interview, let alone an agent and/or your first job. You should start getting organised as you approach the end of your training - before your first public productions:
1) A good, strong professional name.
2) Well-designed headed paper.
3) A secure telephone number with answer phone and/or a reliable human message-taker.
4) Current copies of Contacts and Actors' Yearbook.
5) A good set of photographs and sufficient copies.
6) A well laid out CV.
7) A computer with printer.
8) A good standard letter.
9) A dozen (or more) varied audition speeches. [See my Alternative Shakespeare Auditions (for Women & for Men) & MORE Alternative Shakespeare Auditions (for Women & for Men) for help in this particularly tricky aspect of auditioning.]
10) Half-a-dozen (or more) varied audition songs.
11) A check-list to help respond to the inevitable 'What have you been doing recently?'/'Tell me a bit about yourself?'
12) An entry in Spotlight.
13) A reasonable selection of clothes for interviews.
14) The funds to pay for the above and the many other minor things not listed: postage, Equity entry fee and annual subscription, subscriptions to The Stage and other professional publications, travel costs to interviews, and so on. All the above items can easily add up to much more money than you might think - you need to calculate your potential professional expenses and budget for them.
15) A permanent temporary job that is flexible enough for you to drop at 24 hours' notice - at an educated guess only about 10% of the profession earn a living solely from acting. And, even for those, incomes can be incredibly variable - £200 one year to over £20,000 the next to quote just one example.
16) A working knowledge of the nation's transport systems (especially London's) - you will often not know where you might be required for audition/interview (even work) until very late in the day. As a general rule it is wise to double your estimated travelling time to allow for the almost inevitable foul-ups.
17) A great deal of patience, persistence, determination, cunning and resourcefulness.
18) A stoical source of solace for the bad times.
19) A copy of my An Actor's Guide to Getting Work for reading on the loo (published by A. & C. BLACK).

GENERAL:
Can you organise yourself? Acting can be an instant business. For days/weeks/months/years nothing happens and then a few minutes/hours/days/weeks/months/years later it can all be happening. You must always be ready but not constantly on tenterhooks. In spite of the popular image of the chaotic, dizzy actor, you have to be personally organised or you could significantly harm your employment prospects.
As an actor you are your own business. You are not only your own work-force but also your publicity and public relations office, accountancy division, typing pool, transport manager, and - above all - managing director. Of course, you may well have an agent, an accountant, a friendly typist etc., but none of these people can do anything unless you give them clear direction. You are finally responsible for your success or failure in the business.

Simon Dunmore
December 2005

Please e-mail me, if you have any comments.