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Good for you. I encourage you to keep your day job, and do as much acting as you can work around your schedule. Most actors in NYC keep day jobs and have made arrangements with their employers to allow them flexibility to take time off for auditions, rehearsals, 1-2 day shoots, or a two month stint at a theme park or summer theater.A few caveats. Well more than a few. My point here is to disapprise you of the notion that you are going to get paid work, or work on a regular basis without a lot of effort, leg work, networking, and free "experience."Most acting in NYC is unpaid whether it is Off-Off Broadway theater or independent film/video. Most actors who get paid work paid their dues doing unpaid work. Some professional actors work for no low pay to have an opportunity to perform a role or collaborate with certain directors or producers. Most actors in NYC who get paid are doing "extra" or background work in TV and film. Those who do supporting roles and bit parts do not get invited to audition regularly until they are well known in the industry through paying their dues. Of these actors, they may get auditions but they will be in an audition call with 10-20 people of the same "type" - they all have the similar build, complexion, hair, facial features. One will get the job, unless the director/producer changes their mind and rewrites the character. Many shows do not make it past a pilot, and many films get made, but not distributed.The point is, don't count on this as a reliable source of income. The professional actors I know mostly get no paid work. They do not get supporting roles. They do not get character parts. They get hired for a one day shoot which scores 1-2 seconds in the background of a promo or commercial, they are hired to work at parties, they do staged readings and workshops of plays/musicals in progress, they are hired to hand out product samples in costume on the street in Midtown or at malls, they walk on stilts in parades and street fairs, they do industrial films for corporate trade shows and educational videos, they do voice over, they are singing waiters at Stardust Diner, they do product demonstrations at exhibits in conventions and trade shows, they do 1-2 day shoots for low budget Japanese reality shows, outdoor theater, etc. Most of my friends do not make a living exclusively from this piecemeal work.I have a neighbor who has been in the Broadway show Chicago for about ten years. She had played Roxy on the official Broadway tour. She now understudies multiple roles on Broadway. She does eight shows a week and works holidays and of course weekends. She also rehearses the show during the day a few times a week to work new cast members into the show and to polish things that have gotten less precise.An actress I know is a plus model, mostly for print ads and catalogs, and fashion shows, she is a fit model, and sometimes appears on daytime TV talk shows modeling clothes. She also sings opera.My brother-in-law did musical theater in summer stock every year and also worked for a month in a regional theater in December to perform a Christmas show in Pennsylvania. He had worked out a contract with his employer, a private equity firm, where he was valued for his computer graphics skills, to work a certain number of hours per year but on his own schedule, so he could take these blocks of time off.My brother is an opera singer and he works as a freelance graphic designer, forgoing a career path to art director, and a higher income, like colleagues his age. He could work his own hours and even work from home since it became customary to transfer files by email and ftp. Typical regional opera jobs are 3-4 weeks of rehearsal and a few weekends of performances. Sometimes he is able to continue working with a laptop while he is away. He also relies on his wife's income and benefits as a college dean.A friend of mine is a professional actress and clown, trained at Ringling Clown College. She does a lot of children's parties, including face painting, balloon animals, magic, stilt walking, Elsa from Frozen. She was recently featured as the murderess in an Internet channel TV show, she has had multiple parts in those low budget, non-union Japanese TV recreation of real life shows, and has just shot an independent film. She also has a husband who works full time.I have two married friends, an actress and stage director, who are well-trained, highly accomplished, brilliant even. They produce their own theater, and work full-time as a legal secretary and computer programmer, respectively. They bankroll their productions mostly themselves, renting theater and rehearsal space and rarely recouping their expense. They don't have children.My neighbors, husband and wife actors, created a summer outdoors Shakespeare company that performs around NYC. It is growing nicely with higher production values, more performances, and more support in including local government grants. They still both work day jobs, and have a young child.My neighbors, husband and wife actor/filmmakers, have a short film that is making the rounds of film festivals. They just funded a Kickstarter and spent a week shooting a feature length film that is now in post-production. They both work as fundraisers for a prestigious cultural organization and have a young child.My co-worker, a legal secretary, took the short film she directed to Cannes a year ago. They are still looking for distribution.A friend who was an actress and long time writer for a well known daytime soap opera, has started a community children's drama school and theater company.These are people with 20-30 years of experience and degrees in theater, and years of paying continuously for advanced acting classes, voice lessons, dance classes, movement classes, clowning classes, voice over classes, Shakespeare. They may also try their hands a stand-up comedy, burlesque, magic, and cabaret. They frequently do unpaid work to keep challenging themselves and add to the resume and make new connections.I have been to Off-Off Broadway shows in tiny black box theaters that seated 40-50 people, where almost all the performers were members with Actors Equity who you recognized from TV film and Broadway credits, Shakespeare Festivals, top acting schools, and the set, lighting and costume designers were Tony and Oscar winners. These people were not making much money.Now, here is an exercise. Next time you watch TV series, film, or see a play, look up the actor's name in the IMDb - Movies, TV and Celebrities and the IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information. Look through their careers and see how many roles and films and shows they have done each year. See how many were playing a guest role and how many were as a series regular. See how many were films or shows you have heard of.For example, I have a friend who was the star actor in a prestigious acting school in my college. He was also a housemate of mine for a year in college. He is a brilliant actor. He won a Jefferson Award in Chicago for his lead performance at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, and is still an ensemble member. As far as I can tell, he has had film and TV and Off-Broadway appearances once or twice a year. He had small roles in Last of the Mohicans, Vanilla Sky, School of Rock, he had a featured role on 10 episodes of Oz, 4 episodes of The Americans, and guest spots on Law and Order, The Good Wife, Blue Bloods, Chicago Fire, and Empire recently. In between, he may be performing in other regional theaters, Off-Off Broadway, indie films, pilots, etc.As for what to do, subscribe to Backstage and Variety, check out these audition listing sites: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS558US558&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=new%20york%20auditionsTake acting classes, find the teachers you like and think you can learn from, and ask around about which are the hottest and best and then make a commitment to their program and approach. Even if you are not doing musicals, you benefit from dance and movement classes and from voice lessons and coachings. Take classes in the classics and Shakespeare, take a good class about classical poetry forms, so that you know how to read iambic pentameter; it comes up even in contemporary plays. Read up on acting methods - old classics are Ute Hagen's Respect for Acting; I like the Sanford Meisner approach. A wonderful book both for role and audition preparation is Michael Shurtleff's Audition. There are many good newer books out.Your acting teachers will recommend books that support their approach.The professional actors I know treat every audition like it is a performance, because it is. It is an opportunity for them to perform and use their craft, even if it is an audience of one person at a table in a room. Even if they have one little speech or it is for a character in a commercial, they prepare extensively. They don't wing it. They use all the tools of their training. They prepare biographies for the part they are to play, they explore all possible motivations and backstories, they look for layers of reality, emotion, distractions, humor, pathos, etc. The are totally invested in the part they are to play, even if it is for Cop Number Two saying to the driver who has pulled over, "Do you have any idea how fast you were going?" When they walk into that audition room, they are showing the results of the preparation in the depth, specificity, and thoroughness of their choices.Look at the actress Stephanie Courtney who has made a several year career in commercials as Flo (Progressive Insurance). She was in shows in college including Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, and some with my wife. My wife says Stephanie is nothing like Flo in person, and you can see her acting range as Marge in Mad Men. But as Flo, she presents a fully believable three dimensional character who is not herself, and who is insidiously successful at capturing our interest in switching our insurance plans. I am sure Ms. Courtney did not walk into the audition without having made some clear choices about Flo from the scripts she was sent ahead of time. She may even have chosen to dress the part, and style her makeup and hair to enhance her portrayal, even if that look was decided and changed by the creative team at the ad agency.Your other homework is to watch the documentaries with interviews of supporting/character actors. Pay attention to how much rejection and lack of work they face, all of them actors who have had experience as TV seriesregulars.That Guy Who Was In That Thing:Documentary on NetflixThat Gal Who Was In That Thing, Part 2