Career Development

Career Development & Alumni Relations

Tisch Drama’s Office of Career Development & Alumni Relations empowers students and alumni to take agency over their careers in the entertainment field. The office aims to reflect the diversity of creative careers in the modern age and what they entail, including use of technology, personal branding and entrepreneurship, sustainable lifestyle practices, and what it means to be a “multi-hyphenate creative"—and more.

To facilitate this, the office provides resources and opportunities for students and alumni to explore and develop a variety of performance and non-performance career options by making connections with professionals in the field and developing sustainable career practices. A students's time at Tisch Drama is filled with workshops, panels, and seminars to help them navigate next steps in their careers as emerging artists and leaders. These can range in topic from finding an internship to how to bridge the gap from student to professional. The office also offers one-on-one coaching, cover letter and headshot review, access to exclusive casting and job opportunities, networking events, and more.

Examples of previous Career Development programs include:

  • Self Tape Strategies: How to Make a Stellar Self-Tape and Reel: Working with casting directors, students learn skills to self- produce demo reels and self-tape auditions.
  • Supporting Yourself and the Art: Discover Multiple Streams of Income to Achieve Financial Freedom- Students will identify existing artistic skill sets to discover how they can be applied in various business sectors
  • Create Your Website With Wix: Wix will provide the necessary skills and tools so that our students can build websites that include their headshot, resume, reel, information about upcoming projects, links to social media pages and much more!
  • Casting Director / Agent Visits: With NYU's central location in one of the theatre capitals of the world, casting directors and agents visit classes and answer students' questions, providing insights into career development. 
  • Tisch Drama Internships: Students participating in internships for credit enroll in THEA-UT 490 a parallel course offering career development learning opportunities. The course curriculum supports students' internship experience in real time and enables them to gain valuable best practice skills for networking and professional development.
  • Tisch Drama Digital Showcase: Graduating students will have the opportuntiy to submit digital materials that will be seen by national and international talent representatives.

The office continues to offer students workshops to help them develop a sustainable health and wellness practice. Examples of these workshops include:

  • Manifesting The Artistic Journey: Empowering Students To Create Their Professional And Personal Practice: Students define what it means to be a healthy artist in the field by developing skills that contribute to a robust, effective, and sustainable creative professional and personal practice. Read more about it here: Tisch Drama presents "Manifesting The Artistic Journey"
  • Emotional Intelligence At Work: How To Develop Your Career And Leadership Skills: Students define their Emotional Intelligence skills while integrating career development and leadership practices to bridge the gap from student to young professional.
  • How to Feed Your Art: Nutritional Health and Wellness Strategies For The Working Actor: Students will be introduced to nutrition science and recommendations, and will have the opportunity to develop their own health and wellness strategies under the guidance of professionals who are working in the nutrition field.

Our goal is that students will graduate feeling confident to take the next steps in their careers having established a strong foundation that includes knowledge of the field, professional exposure, strong sense of self, and the skills to build exciting, sustainable futures.

Additionally, students have access to the Tisch School of the Arts Office of Career Development and the Wasserman Center for Career Development, which also offers a wide range of support for students before and after they graduate. 

Have questions, comments, or ideas? Don't hesitate to reach out to Jessica Genick, Program Manager of the Office of Career Development & Alumni Relations, at jessica.genick@nyu.edu.

Office Hours: Jessica Genick, Program Manager, Career Development and Alumni Relations, hosts in-person and digital drop-in hours Thursdays from 2- 4 pm EDT. Ask questions about career development including internships, resume, cover letter, career planning, and more. No appointment is necessary.

To meet in person, please visit Jessica at 721 Broadway, Room 320B.

To meet on Zoom:

  • Click this Zoom link
  • Wait in the digital waiting room (up to 10 minutes)
  • Jessica will move you into a Zoom meeting