In the following paragraphs, I am going to talk about 3 indicators that tell you that it is you who is stopping you from getting hired, and when I said you, I meant your habit.

3 reasons you are not getting hired

Too high an expectation

Nothing is perfect in this world; neither you nor any job. If you are waiting for a perfect job to fly from the land of fairy and set down in your lap then I am afraid to say the wait is going to be rather long. Meanwhile, I would recommend bagging a not-so-perfect job that matches your skill set, and which can provide sufficient money for you to survive on.

Be realistic. Weigh every aspect of the dream job you want, and see what all you can let go. You will soon be employed.

Too small a net

Are you relying on just one technique to search for the job? Do you feel uncomfortable trying out different job-search tools and techniques?

To catch a lot many fish, a fisherman needs to have a net that is wide enough and strong enough. Similarly, a job hunter needs to widen his net using all the possible tools and techniques to land up in a good job, which sadly enough, very few people are doing, for they are slave of their habit of using one tool.

Too Egocentric (I, me, and myself) cover letter

This is stupendous mistake committed by a job hunter. No one wants someone who has an ego as big as the size of the Milky Way. I know your ego is comparatively smaller in magnitude, but why does not it reflect in the cover letter you send out? Why your cover letter is talking too much about “I”?

Writing I, I, and I will not land you up in a job, forget about a good job, as no one cares how smart, talented, Einstein-esque you are. Your interviewer cares only about his needs, and about an employee who can meet that need. I know what big a dork he is, but at the end of the day, he is the one who will sign your paying slip, month after month.

Wouldn’t it be smart then to satisfy his needs by talking about his company and how you will add solve the problem he has in a cover letter? From where I am standing, it would be smarter, far smarter to this than to talk about I, me, and myself.

If you, unknowingly, committed any of these mistakes then it is time to undo them, should you want to get hired. After all, we call it habit because we do it unknowingly, as a habit.

This is where this blog post figures in. The 3Cs (creative, commitment, and confidence) that we are going to discuss in this article will help you convey the message an interviewer wants to hear from an interviewee.

3 Cs of job interview

Be creative

You should be creative in your approach. Do not just give a rotten answer to each of the question asked. It sounds boring, it looks mechanical, and no one wants a non-creative, mechanical person because they already have more powerful machines to do the job.

Do not deliver a premeditated answer. Take a chance, offer something innovative. This will impress your interviewer.

Commitment

The second C of job interview is commitment. Convey your interviewer your desire to stay with his company as long as things does not fall apart. Tell him that you are not the “job hopper” kind and believe in staying with a company and delivering result. Your interviewer needs to know whether you will go out of your way to solve a customer’s problem or not. Tell them you will do it. This will put the interviewer at ease, and he will lower his guard, which will provide you entry into his organization.

Confidence

You do not have anything, if you do not have confidence to move ahead, despite all the odds. No product is perfect. Your interviewer, who is also your prospective employer, knows this, and you should also know this. And if you have the guts to sell the product, despite its several short coming then are in the team.

Show your employer your level of confidence and belief in what you do. Do not shy away from this.

This brings us to the end of 3Cs of a job interview. In the next article will see what the 3 Es of a job interview are, and how each one of them will help you crack a job interview.

Attire should be apt for the job profile and the kind of industry you are going to join. In industries where your profile deals directly with customers or clients, your attire will be judged even more critically.

If you aren’t confident about interview attire, follow the given tips while going for your next interview.

Men’s attire

• A well-fit suit in dark, mono color never goes wrong
• A long sleeve button-up shirt, preferably white or coordinated with the suit
• Wear a conservative tie. Avoid too bright color or patterned ones
• Belt
• Dark shoes paired with dark socks
• Professional looking short hairstyle and conventional hair colors (brown, black, blonde)
• Little or no accessories
• Neatly trimmed nails
• Portfolio or briefcase
• Light aftershave or perfume

Women’s attire

• A well-fit suit (dark blue, black, grey, white) or a dark colored pant or skirt, just above or below knee, along with matching blazer or coat
• A well coordinated blouse, which has a proper fit, neither too body hugging nor loose
• Conventional, closed-toe shoes, matching your skirt or pant. Either go for flat shoe or heels not more than 2 inches high
• Wear limited jewelries. Danglers, flashy gold, silver are to be avoided
• Keep a neat, professional hairstyle. Go for the regular hair colors
• Subtle make up and light fragrant perfume are fine
• Neatly trimmed, medium sized nails with formal nail colors look professional
• Portfolio or bag

Tips for both men and women

• Clothes should be laundry clean, crease-free
• Clothes should fit well, neither too loose nor too tight
• Shoes should be polished
• Fresh breath is must
• Clothes should have no missing buttons, no lint; no stains, no external tags
• Laptops, folders, small briefcase look professional

Now you know what it means to dressing up to the occasion. Get ready, and blow the interviewer away with your professionalism.

First, think about your hobbies.  You need a good practical one that you really enjoy.  If you enjoy cooking, something to do with the culinary field is a good bet.  Or if you like building projects, fixing up an old car, or even something like golfing, all of those could become viable business options.  Find one that you really enjoy, and that seems plausible, and roll with that idea.

From there you need to become an expert in your hobby, so that your opinion becomes really valuable.  If you like to cook, get some real experience, or better yet, go to school.  A culinary school is a fantastic way to sharpen your skills.  Plus the school will give you an invaluable education into how you could actually run a restaurant.  That could be a helpful skill in the long run, as it gives you different career options.  Go specific to your hobby, and look into educational options to make you an expert.

Before you give up your main source of income, try dipping your feet into the water of your hobby.  Again with cooking, try getting a job on a line at a restaurant, to really get a feel for the environment.  Plus this will provide you with the practice you need to excel.  When your skills are noticed at that level, you can really set yourself to succeed in your business venture.

From there you’ve got a good start, and a good idea of where to take your hobby driven career.  Use your education and your practice, and you’ve found a good starting ground to a job you’ll love.

Which is exactly why it’s much more proactive and you’ll net better results by finding jobs for yourself, instead of waiting for them to pop up on the job boards.  What you need to do is network yourself.  Find the companies you would like to work for, or the jobs that you want, and get connected to them.

First, search for the people you want to work for, whether they seem to have any job openings or not.  You might just have exactly what they didn’t even know they were looking for.  Next you want to get in touch with their human resources department, as in almost every case, HR handles employee hiring and terminations.  Although another common tactic, but one with a lower rate of success, is to contact management heads.  This can either pay off completely, or fail miserably, as managers usually have very busy schedules, and if you don’t impress almost immediately, you are doomed to be completely forgotten.

From here you basically want to send a friendlier variation on the sort of cover letter you would send with your resume.  Make your intentions clear, that you’re interested in a job, introduce yourself, and personalize everything to let them know your qualifications shortlist and why you want to work for that company.  Try that enough and you’re bound to find somebody that didn’t even know they needed you, thereby landing a much better job than you could have found searching Monster.com for the umpteenth time.

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.