Grabbing seat

Often interviewee is extremely nervous while seeing the interviewer for the first time and forgets basic manners by grabbing a seat without recruiter’s permission. You may not notice it, but your interviewer will and find it extremely ill-mannered. Wait for the interviewer to sit and then take your seat with his or her permission. Sit only after you greet the interviewer.

Wandering eyes

Wandering eyes right from interviewer’s tie to shoes, from ceiling to the window is extremely disturbing for the interviewer. It not only reflects candidate’s lack of attention, but also lack of confidence. Look straight into interviewer’s eyes and don’t let your eyes wander here and there. It’s extremely annoying. Look straight into interviewer’s eyes and don’t let your eyes wander here and there. The interviewer may try to find out what are you observing here and there. Make maximum eye contact, but don’t gaze at the interviewer either.

Too much personal talks

No interviewer appreciates personal talk. So avoid it. Even when asked to describe yourself, don’t include too much of personal details like where you were born, where you went for last holiday, what you do in your free time, your relationship status and the like. Even you can avoid too much of personal queries, simply by saying you don’t feel your personal life has anything to do with your professional field. Honesty will impress the right interviewer and he or she won’t intervene into your personal life either.

Fidgeting

Often in nervousness we start fidgeting objects and unknowingly it draws attention of the recruiter. Avoid this habit.

Dumb queries

Just for the sake of asking questions don’t shoot your questions to the interviewer. Ask only smart, interesting and valid questions. Don’t ask stupid questions like ‘Will I get this job?’ or ‘What’s your budget?’ It shows immaturity.

In the times when your guests are at your home, you may need to exert yourself more, as you will work doubly — once to spend time with people you love and once to delight your customers with your impeccable work. We all face this kind of problem, and fortunately there is a way out of it. When I say a way out of it, I do not mean an easy way. Let me fist tell you about the ways out of it then you can decide to take it or leave it (this phrase sounds so filmy, isn’t it? Like the Godfather giving an unpleasant deal).

Work in the night

Once you have had all the laughs of the world, it is time to burn mid-night oil. This is kind of difficult, but you can manage it provided you do not end-up dining at mid-night. Stay awake for one or two hours in the night to finish the work.

Work Early morning

Waking up one hour early than usual could be tried. You can use this time to finish the works in due time. Early morning could be good, as your guests will not be waking so early, and nor will your kids and spouse.

Apart from these obvious times, you can also utilize the unplanned free time to complete the assignment. This way you will able to meet deadlines without sacrificing much on the fun your family and your guests are having. As I see, guests are not evil. They give you opportunity to break away from the monotonous life. Why not use it to the fullest? And to maintain pace of the work, do as suggested above.

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

                                                                 — The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Like the celebrated science fiction writer Douglas Adams I too love the whooshing sound made by a deadline when it passes by. But my clients do not share this view, and I am sure, neither does yours. And thus we are forced to work around time. But despite all our good intentions, we fail to meet deadlines, at time.

This particular problem chases many freelance writers, and quite many of them fail to out-speed it, which leaves them panting and gasping for more air. And at this point they wonder — is it possible humanly possible to meet the deadline?

Because of dejection, they get no as an answer despite the fact that deep in their hearts they know it is possible. This article is for those people. It will help them manage their deadlines, and if you are one of them then for sure, you will stop fearing deadlines after reading this.

Do not chew more than you can swallow

I know this is oft quoted maxim, but still it is not oft used. People, more often than we think is possible, end up taking more than mouthful. And this cannot be truer for anyone than for a freelance writer. Partly because of greed, and partly due to morbid fear of losing a client, a freelance writer ends up taking more projects than he can finish in a day.

Allocate adequate time

This is another problem. In a rush to convince oneself of having free time available for one more client, a freelance writer often end up allocating adequate time to a project, in the planning phase, which come to haunt him when he starts working on it.

Cannot say no

This is another reason behind a freelance writer’s failure to meet the deadline. It is the fear of losing a client, a freelance writer end up accepting unrealistic deadline, which they can never meet.

These are the three main reasons why you are constantly behind your deadlines. Remove them from your daily routine, and you will always be on time.

For an experienced writer the choice had not been very difficult, as he or she would have easily said no, but for a new writer who has very little to show to the clients in order to get work, it is not all that easy. And if you are on the same boat that I was on in the beginning of my career then you must be getting frustrated and all the weird feeling about freelance writing career.

Before you succumb under the burgeoning number of clients asking for free article, you must consider the following:

It is hard to convert a free client into a paying one

Once your client tests the blood (free blood), he is not going to pay for your service, even it means he will lose you. If you think, therefore, that you will be able to charge your client after giving him a taste of your blood then I am sorry to say this is not going to happen.

Free for how long?

This is the first question you should ask your client who asks you to do the writing for free. No one can write unlimited articles for free – it doesn’t matter how much free time one has, and even how bad one writes. You need to talk to your client and ask him what the preconditions for getting paid are. Ask him how long you need to write for free before he starts sending out checks.

Well, I cannot say how many articles you should write for free before asking for payment. It all depends on how far you can stretch it. If you ask me, I have never written more than 200 words for free. That is enough to show my client if I can write or not.

It builds portfolio

This is the one thing that always plays in the back of every new freelance writer’s mind, and this is what makes us accept the offer to write for free. But there is a limit to everything, so do not keep on writing to make your portfolio heavier and heavier. After all, who needs to look at your 100-page page portfolio before hiring you?

What will you get in return

The worst possible deal for a freelance writer writing for free could be to write under someone else’s name. Do not accept a free writing offer that does not allow you to put your name in the author’s box. This will not do good to you.

Deciding whether you should write for free or not is on you. I will refrain from giving unsolicited advice, as I do not know your situation. But I will recommend considering each of the points discussed above before saying yes to write for free offer.

Never underestimate the power of a social networking environment that facilitates other peers in your profession.  These types of sites can be incredibly influential for finding out the latest industry news, or important competitive information, like where the best jobs are currently, or which companies tend to care for their employees better.  As you can communicate with others in your professional field you’ll also find yourself making friend easier, and industry friends are always good to have, as that sells who you are to a broader audience.  Never forget, when you’re looking for a new job, you want your name out there as much as possible.

Professional social networking sites are also a great resource for any company looking to hire new talent.  Considering they give you the chance to make friends, meet new people, and really learn about them in an unbiased fashion.  From an individual’s online profile, to also participating in conversations with them, you get a real view of the person and what they could offer your company.  Opposed to the biased attitude anybody looking to get a job has in an interview.

So don’t underestimate the power of a good social networking site.  Probably something a bit more serious than Facebook or Myspace, as these aren’t exactly the best place to have a serious conversation with a stranger most times.  But something more geared towards industry professionals like yourself, or your company.

Solitary reaper

The journey of a writer is solitary one. Your decision to start writing has put you on the path where you will not get any company. All you will get is this: your characters to converse with; your ideas to talk to; your plot to develop; your message to convey; your words to play with.

Switch off your cell phone, disconnect your landline phones, grab a cup of steaming tea, close the door, Hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door, and venture out.

When to write

If you feel in the zone at 2 AM in the morning, start writing then only; if the morning breeze stimulates your creative senses then push the newspaper reading for the day and start writing from 5 AM in the morning. The idea is to fix the time that suits your lifestyle as unlike 9-5 office job, there is no one fix time for writing.

Writing schedule

Writing requires dedication. You need to be disciplined to become successful as a writer. Start the journey with making a writing schedule. Fix a time and stick to it. I will suggest you to write daily, but if your work schedule does not give you enough free time to write daily then write at least thrice a week. This regularity will seed writing habit in you. If you are just starting out, you can even start with writing on weekends, and then increase the frequency when the rhythm sets in.

Clean up

Remove all the unnecessary things from your writing desk. The more things you will have, the more scattered your attention will be. Keep only those things (Pen, paper, reference books, laptop, desktop, etc.) that you need while writing.

Set a Goal

How much you want to accomplish in the coming week? Start with setting a weekly goal. Divide the weekly goal into smaller daily goals, if you have planned to write daily. Always stick to the goal, come may what! How much are you planning to write today: 1 page, 500 words, 1000 words or 2 pages?

Freshen up

Before you begin writing, you can listen to the music you like; watch 10-20 minutes of your favorite television show; take a 10-minute shower, go for a walk; play with your dog; read a book; sit alone and feel the wind; or do a light exercise. The idea is to remove the unnecessary baggage from your mind and freshen up before you begin writing. This way you will be more productive. You cannot write well, if you are not feeling fresh.

Record what you do and eliminate unnecessary things

In order to take time out from your daily schedule, you need to figure out how you spend your day. Start with recording everything that you do in your daily life. Once you have a complete list of things that you do in any day of the week, start striking out the thing you can do without. You will be amazed to see how much time you wasted in idle talks, and television watching. These things are important, but when done in excess, they can kill your productivity.

Cut on rests

One needs to work hard, if one wants to achieve something. You need to cut on sleeping, and lunchtime rests to take time out to write. You can use this time to write down the thoughts that come to you, or even use this time to develop your story.

Write while you travel

Well, this is not always possible to write when you are going from one place to another, but you can always use this time to write down the key points, which you can further develop at your leisure.

Talk to your family and ask for support

Take your family in confidence and speak your mind, tonight on the dinner table. Tell them what you are planning to do. Ask your partner, or parents to look after your kids at least once a week, so that you can have some free time to write. If you have grownup kids then ask them to do the house works once a week to help you in taking time out to write.

But it might be necessary to ask ourselves: is it possible to eradicate ID theft/ phishing, or at the very least make it so rare as to become almost a non-issue? Do we have the technology to overpower these malicious individuals, and make their ‘art’ so difficult and so financially unproductive so that we end up forcing them to look for legitimate ways of spending their free time?

My answer is an emphatic No. unlike the vehicle industry which takes years to produce a more advanced simple gadget like a carburetor, computer innovations present us with almost daily new, easier to use, hip devices which make life so much fun. Therefore no government can ever discourage the internet revolution and its ever astounding innovations, unless they want to risk a countrywide mutiny.

But could hackers/phisers be successfully re-integrated into the law-abiding populace? Should criminal activity be seen to be encouraged? What about the victims? But if we will never defeat the miscreants, then what is the alternative?

My view, however unpopular, is this: in exchange for leniency/possible outright forgiveness, I’d propose the hacker and the “phisher” to be presented with two alternatives:

1. A sort of a six month moratorium, where total cooperation with law enforcement agencies should lead to their being absorbed into a special IT security institute – a sort of a half-way house – with good pay, but 50% of it goes to reimburse their victims.
2. For those who refuse to come out of their dark criminal world- a long jail term plus hefty fines should await them. I think the reasonable ones would take the former option.