As with any business venture, networking is key.  Tapping into the world, meeting others looking to form careers in the same area is key.  This will give you an in to what jobs are available, and what jobs are worth applying for.  Work from home forums or websites can be good resources.  Use them, because networking oftentimes determines how successful you become.

Also, know how to spot a scam.  This is especially important when starting out.  Most scams involve asking for money in order for an opportunity to provide you with work or resources.  Never give them anything, because more often than not these are scams.  You’ll pay money, and get nothing, or no job opportunities in return.  A legitimate employer is never going to ask you to pay money in order to secure an opportunity.

In your search, remember that patience is key.  You may find difficulty finding an opportunity at first, and it may take some time to form legitimate ones.  But as long as you’re diligent, eventually you’ll find something.  Once you find one job, you’re usually good to find a few more, easier than last time.
Remember that you’re going to make mistakes, but don’t let that stop you from soldiering on.   The difference between success and failure is the amount of effort you are willing to extend.

Your fist tactic should always be networking.  Before you leave college make sure that you’ve got your name out there to the right people.  You want to stay in contact and make yourself known to a few of the select students around you, and your professors.  They will be a great resource for work down the line, so remember that, and keep those relationships avenues open.

Keep networking outside of school.  Try professional sites like linkedIn, etc, that offer connections with other professionals in the field.  Create lasting professional relationships, as these are where the best jobs will come from.  Companies frequently don’t openly advertise their best positions, and the only way you’ll hear about them is through somebody that you know.

Try your local newspaper, you won’t find fantastic jobs here most of the time, but you will find some decent options to pad your resume and provide income in transition.  Usually jobs advertised in a local newspaper don’t have a high applicant rate, so your chances of landing the job will also be better.

Finally, remember to stay professional.  Whether networking, or applying to the jobs, keep your demeanor professional, as your attitude says a lot about what manner of employee you will be at that company.  One of the biggest complaints about college graduates in the job market lately is that they have a false sense of entitlement.

Many recent grads almost feel as though a high paying job should be instantly available to them.  But that isn’t the case.  You have to work at a company and career to make it succeed, sometimes from the lower ranks of the ladder.  Stay courteous and polite always, be proud and confident, but also humble and realistic.  You don’t want to come off as a cocky self important applicant, because companies tend to stay away from them.  They aren’t hard workers, and they have no long term loyalty.  Both bad strikes to have against you.

-Try thinking positively about the job you hate.  Consider the positive parts, such as the fact that you are lucky enough to have a job during this turmoil.  The fact that you have reliable enough work that you’ve stayed employed, and have been able to live more comfortably than many other Americans.  Thinking about your good fortune is a great way to bring that smile out.

-Set time limits on your tasks, to see if you can accomplish your goals.  This is almost a tactic to make a game out of the monotony you may suffer if you hate your job.  Also this helps you get faster, and better at accomplishing your tasks.  The appearance of becoming a better, harder worker, could help you advance into a higher position that you won’t hate.

-Take an interest in your coworkers.  Make friends, and be positive and good natured with them.  Creating a better work environment around you can really help how you feel at work.  A great way to do that is improve your relations with those around you, creating a friendly environment that you can enjoy.

-Finally, just because you have a job, doesn’t mean you can’t look for a different one.  Try looking for other opportunities that may serve you better.  Something that you can really get into, and have a true passion for, unlike your current job.  Just make sure to keep that knowledge silent, as some employers take personal offence when their employees look for work elsewhere.  The last thing you want is to lose the job you have, because you were looking for a different one.

-Computer Software Engineer.  Anything with computers is usually a good way to go, and software engineers are in high demand.  A software engineer works with a corporation’s current operating system, and retools the system to best serve the business.  Software engineers are paid well, and are likely to be in high demand for a long, long time, as computers have become integral to any business.

-Physician’s Assistant is another career path that’s in high demand.  Most medical fields are understaffed, leaving great opportunities to find a job, and advance.  A Physician’s Assistant is one of the most in demand careers that provides a good salary, and doesn’t require as much education.  To become a PA you’d need a bachelor’s degree, as well as degree from an accredited Physician’s Assistant program.

-Network Systems Analyst is another one of those great computer careers that’s on the rise, and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere soon.  A network systems analyst is responsible for establishing email, phone, and data communication for a business.  You’ll need a computer specific bachelor’s degree, and up to date computer certifications.

-Physical/Occupational Therapists are always in high demand.  A physical therapist helps someone recover from an injury, or a disease.  A physical therapist is responsible for helping someone recover to full physical health after an injury.  Occupational therapists assist those with handicaps, and help them develop the physical skills necessary to work around their handicap.  Both are well paying careers, but you’ll need a master’s degree to enter the upper echelon of the field.

Well, realize that most people who feel underemployed are generally dissatisfied with their jobs.  Usually this stems from either a salary that is below your standards, the lack of opportunities to express your skills, or just not enough work for you to complete.  In any situation you can find yourself feeling unhappy at the workplace.  Which is exactly why you should take this opportunity to resolve that situation.

Try making yourself more of an asset to the company.  If you find yourself not getting enough work, try asking for more.  If you’re not happy with your salary, make yourself stand out so that the company has no choice but to recognize you for your accomplishments.  Try asking your boss for more assignments, or ways that you can help out by taking on workload from other sources.  Gives you something to do, and helps you become more of an asset.

If you’re unhappy with the position in general, you can use the extra time to network.  Hit the break room, or the cafeteria and make friends with the people around you from other departments, or other companies.  Find out what opportunities are around you that you didn’t know about.  You could end up finding the job of your dreams, you just have to put in the effort to search.  If the company you’re at now isn’t meeting your standards, networking can help you find a new opportunity that will.  Anything is better than staying underemployed and unhappy.

1. Bad Performance Reviews

Okay, so it’s your monthly performance review and normally you excel at your job, this month has been no different, so you’re expecting a quick and easy positive performance review right?  Well what if you get a bad one out of the blue?  This could be a clue in that your company is setting you up to be fired.  It’s always favorable for Human Resources and the legal departments if someone has a few bad performance reviews on file before they are terminated, to show that the company had adequate reason.

2. Your Inclusion In Projects Is Limited.

If you’re starting to feel left out of your bosses tactics, and are feeling fairly underappreciated, you may not be imagining things, it may just be that you’re slowly being phased out of that workplace.  Anytime your boss is avoiding you more, leaving you out, or your own colleagues are leaving you out of private meetings, it wouldn’t hurt for you to start browsing some opportunities elsewhere.  At least that way your job loss won’t come as an earth shattering shock.

3. You Get A New Boss.

Managers like to work with employees that they are familiar with.  With workers that they know well, a boss knows what to expect, how far they can push, and which goals that they will be able to accomplish.  The problem with that strategy is for your new boss to make room for new people, he/she has to get rid of you.  A new boss is always a good time for you to brush up that resume and be prepared to be job hunting.

4. Coworkers Begin Getting Fired.

Even if you’re a star performer at your job, if the company starts making cuts on account of an economic crisis nobody is safe.  So if you see a lot of heads rolling at your company, get your interview skills practiced once more, because you could be following suite before too long.

Being afraid to lose your job can affect your performance at work, and how well you function in the other aspects of your life, from social activities to health and well being.  Fear of something like job loss is extremely stressful, putting your body through a whole torrent of negative emotions and thoughts, affecting your life in any manner of negative ways.  So your first step to combat those negative emotions?  Control what you experience concerning the economy.

It’s good to keep tabs on what’s going on in the world, but if you find a lot of stories about economic tension, try to avoid them.  You know the state of the economy, there’s no reason you need to be reading about it every five minutes.  By sort of ignoring the negative news, you’re not allowing yourself new information to worry over, decreasing the likelihood that you will be stuck thinking about how horrible life could turn if you lost your job.

Make a good plan for how to conduct your job search should you lose your job.  This way you have a back up plan at the ready, so the blow of actually losing your job wouldn’t be as harsh of one.  Being prepared is never a bad thing, and you’ll feel better knowing that you’re ready for anything, no  matter what the economy throws at you.

Finally, just stay positive.  Positive thinking is the best way to reduce stress and fell better.  Stress is usually derived from negative thinking, so instead of worrying about life without your job, think about how glad you are to still have a job despite the economic turmoil.

Now that you know positive thinking is the way to go in your work life, how do you manage to stay positive, even when you may already be grooming a fairly negative attitude?  Well first off, just practice.  Everything takes practice if you want to do whatever it is you’re attempting well.  Positive thinking is no different in that way.

Try to focus on positive things.  Keep a list of motivational quotes near your workspace, something you can turn to every day for your daily inspiration.  Which is exactly why something like a motivational calendar, or even finding a few motivational posters and posting them around your work area can really make a difference in your outlook.  Plus these will slowly but surely help change your attitude into a more positive one, also helping you evolve into a more positive person.

When something goes bad at work, instead of focusing on what happened badly and the negative effects that you could suffer as a consequence, try instead to focus on a solution.  Thinking positive means turning a problem into a challenge, the sort that makes you strive to find your solution.  Positive people look to solutions, opposed to focusing on the negative consequences of when things don’t go quite as planned.  So the next time you’re faced with some adversity, try to focus on what you’re going to do to get beyond, opposed to how it’s negatively effecting you at work.

And the first thing you should be doing, is just being a healthy person in general.  Eating right, exercising, getting enough sleep, and maintaining positive social relationships are all key to being a healthy human being.  The better you feel from a health perspective, the better you’re going to feel in all the other parts of your life.  So personal maintenance is key to professional maintenance.

Make sure you keep yourself well organized at work, that way if you’re asked for a report at an unexpected time, you can find the necessary materials quickly.  That way you remove the pressure of having to slap something together at the last minute, by always being well prepared with a well organized desk environment.

Keep spaces open in your organizer so that you have time to do things for yourself.  It may sound a little silly, scheduling time for you to read, but this way you make sure to have the time available.  Making sure your personal time never gets ignored in favor of work ensures you stay more relaxed, and staying as relaxed as possible under pressure is the name of the game.  You’ll perform better, and you’ll find yourself to be a happier person.

Choose a career where you’re motivated by your own will to succeed, opposed to being driven by a paycheck.  You’ll find yourself much more stressed if you end up in a job you hate, and are only working long hours to make ends meet.  Sometimes this can be fairly unrealistic depending upon your personal situation, but try to gravitate towards jobs that you actually want to carry out.

Learn how to know when it’s time to call it quits.  Killing yourself for an extra four hours everyday isn’t going to get that much more work done, and is only going to cut into your life, and make you feel more stressed.  You always pay for the stressful years of your life later on, from health problems, to social problems.  Know when it’s time to tell your boss or company a polite “no” when it comes to compromising yourself for your job.  Get your work done, and do it well, but no job is worth compromising who you are.

First off, it’s not like you’re going to be getting to play your favorite game for hours on end, having fun and making a living wage from your efforts.  In actuality you’re forced to play something that’s likely to he horrible, for long periods of time, and analyzing every second of the experience.  Game testers are around to spot the smallest things, such as graphical errors, or collision detection issues with a game’s physics engine, and these require a massive amount of time to completely figure out.  So instead of playing through a level and getting paid for it, you’re really critiquing every pixel in the level to a daunting extent, and reporting back to development teams so that they can fix and edit the game accordingly.

Not exactly a party.

Not to mention a game testers schedule becomes increasingly more grueling as deadlines begin to loom.  Meaning a tester could end up putting in 12 to 14 hour days, playing the same levels and portions of gameplay over and over again, with the same repetitive movements and requirements, in an effort to nit pick every single detail.  Not exactly a dream job, and you can see why most testers burn out in a relatively short period of time.

I’m thinking most people misjudge the opportunity as a dream job, and then find themselves shocked into reality when they see just how much work playing videogames can be.