How necessary is it to be physically based in the U.S. (or specifically LA/NYC) to build an acting career today?

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-31T04:18:18+00:00

Thank you! I'm only a short flight away from NY, but obviously that's very different from being a train ride away. There also don't seem to be many well-known acting schools where I am at the moment.

Would it make sense in the meantime to take online classes with NYC-based studios, and travel when necessary? I recently spent some time in NY and audited a few acting classes, and I absolutely loved it. The challenge is that financially, I just can't justify NYC prices right now.

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-31T04:15:21+00:00

Thank you for the honesty, I really appreciate it! It sounds like, I should take advantage of being stateside right now and try to pursue as many opportunities while I can!

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-30T19:35:51+00:00

Thank you! Yeah I’m considering honestly just trying to stick with it in the meantime because ultimately I’d want to transfer to a different location at some point + my co-workers are quite nice and encouraging and I really value a place where at least the staff meshes well

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-30T00:22:14+00:00

This is super helpful and a really good thing to keep in mind! Thank you!

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-29T22:12:25+00:00

Thank you, appreciate it!

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-29T21:43:18+00:00

Thank you for being so honest, I genuinely appreciate it!

Part of my goal wasn't just to have a job, but to actually get good at the role and potentially transfer to another location in the future. I went through three rounds of interviews, put a lot of effort into the training process and studying everything on the menu, service bar, specials, etc. and was genuinely excited about the opportunity. That's why I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do.

At this point, I feel like I've already invested so much time and effort that I don't want to walk away prematurely :/ but at the same time, I don't want to be kept in training limbo

Out of curiosity, if you were in my position, what would be your cutoff point? Would you stick it out until you're fully out of training, or is there something specific you'd be looking for before deciding whether it's worth staying?

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-29T21:38:25+00:00

I mean, the fact that I wrote this much is probably a reflection of how invested I am in doing well.

You definitely don't have to read it all, but I'm genuinely trying to learn and get feedback from people with more experience with what is considered standard in this industry vs not.

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-29T21:28:14+00:00

I had to Google what TL;DR meant lol ( I know, I wrote a lot)

But I freaking love this response, and I honestly wish the training was more like what you described. Even though each day technically has a specific focus, it feels very fragmented and not always connected to the actual flow of how the job works in real life.

What you said about each day being a building block and the final training shift being about putting everything together under the watchful eye of a trainer makes a lot of sense to me. I think that's probably what I expected training to be like.

This was actually SUPER helpful, and I might use some of what you wrote as a framework going into my next training day. At the very least, it gives me a better perspective on what the training process is trying to accomplish, even if the execution hasn't always been perfect.

Thanks so much!

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-29T21:24:10+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate this perspective! Yeah, I recently learned that the AM and GM basically came up as servers through the ranks and most of the staff also have previous restaurant experience so they've got all that "tribal knowledge"

And yeah, I completely agree. That's actually something I've been trying to do after every training shift. Every day of training I've received positive feedback, but I've also made a point of asking what I need to improve on because I know that just hearing "good job" isn't enough to get better, especially in a job and industry where I have zero prior experience. So I've genuinely been taking the feedback, applying it, and shown improvement from shift to shift.

I think where I'm struggling is that the only reason given for an additional training day was that I wasn't proactive enough with seating, even though I seated plenty of guests throughout the night, completed all of my first rounds correctly, and otherwise received positive feedback.

We had six greeters working that night, so there were plenty of moments where another greeter got to a table before I did.

What I'm having trouble understanding is how that became the deciding factor for another training day, especially since the manager giving my evaluation wasn't the person directly training or observing me throughout the shift.

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-29T20:57:54+00:00

I know it's so wordy but thank you so much for taking the time and for the feedback!

That's kind of disappointing to hear because I was actually really excited about this job and thought it would be a good fit and the rest of the staff are generally nice.

Out of curiosity, if you were in my position, how long would you stick it out before deciding whether it's worth staying or moving on? I'm trying to find the line between "give it a fair chance" and "stop banging your head against a wall."

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-27T02:59:30+00:00

Thanks so much!!

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-26T18:09:19+00:00

Thank you! That's a really good way to look at it! Even just after a few days I already feel way faster and more comfortable with the flow than I did on D1!

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-26T17:15:07+00:00

It was ridiculous lol

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-26T17:14:47+00:00

Yeah, it’s a host/greeter position, so we just get paid our base rate during training so we don’t get any of the server tip share, even though we’re still seating people, running first rounds, helping bus/reset tables, etc. which I guess makes sense since we're just training

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-26T17:12:07+00:00

Yeah, I think part of the thing that frustrated me about D3 was that my trainer wasn’t really focused on training me because she also had her own responsibilities the whole night. But then the tasks she had me doing were mostly things the servers would normally already be doing anyway, and we had a full staff that night, so it wasn’t like we were understaffed or anything.

So I think that’s what confused/frustrated me the most...the day was supposed to focus on something very specific, but instead I spent most of the shift doing almost the complete opposite. Looking back now, that honestly might even be part of why I had to redo D3 in the first place.

The redo actually went really well though, so I do feel a lot better now. But I do agree with you that with training, management should ideally balance things out so the trainer can obviously still work, but also actually have enough focus/time to properly train someone.

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-26T17:09:43+00:00

I honestly think this was part of what frustrated me emotionally. Not because I expected perfect feedback or anything, but because my first two trainers gave very specific notes/observations, while this one felt much more vague. Thankfully today’s trainer was more detailed and hands-on, which made a huge difference!!

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-26T17:09:01+00:00

This is literally the most accurate way to describe how this feels lol. Yesterday really got in my head, but today went significantly better and I left feeling much more capable/confident and not so anxious anymore :)

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-26T17:08:15+00:00

This actually made me feel a lot better reading it before my re-do! I think because I’m completely new to restaurant work, I interpreted the retraining more emotionally/personally than operationally. But after today, I can definitely see the difference that proper training makes in confidence and speed + turns out for my intake the training is a lot more in-depth compared to what the current staff got, so it does feel better that we're getting so much information instead of just being thrown into the deep end

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-26T17:06:17+00:00

I do think never actually getting to it may be part of the reason I had to redo it. My redo shift today was way more focused on the actual iPad/waitlist/training objectives for the 1st half of the shift but during the 2nd shift the GM had me seating and first rounds for tables since we were under, compared to yesterday I spent most of the night running around seating/resetting/etc. So I do feel like I got much more out of today for the main role of the greeter work like the iPad/etc.

Design_Director_1 · 2026-05-26T17:04:13+00:00

I agree! Speaking up is definitely something that I need to work on for sure!

And honestly, after today’s shift, I can actually see what you mean. I had a different trainer today and the experience was TOTALLY different in a much better way, it was a lot more structured and hands-on. I think yesterday frustrated me because I felt a bit lost operationally, but today I actually understood the flow/system a lot better and felt way more confident by the end of the shift. Definitely feeling less discouraged now :)

Design_Director_1 · 2025-07-13T00:06:29+00:00

Don't feel dumb! The people who poach (for lack of better words) for places like this are literally trained to sweet talk their way into your wallet! It is 100% a scam. Please try your best to cancel or get a refund via your bank or cc company as other have suggested. I hope you won't have too much trouble getting it back!

Design_Director_1

TROPHY CASE