National Edition - April 15, 2007  Busy Year Immediately after celebrating the successful sponsorship of Toronto's National Job Fair, the Jobboom team is busy again - this time preparing to journey out West to sponsor the sold-out annual HR conference organized by the Human Resources Institute of Alberta (HRIA). Following the HRIA event, the Jobboom team will travel to BC and then Nova Scotia, partnering with like-minded organizations that care about recruiting quality job seekers to fill Canada's healthy labour market. IN THE HOTSPOT Musical cubicles There's been a lot happening as of late about hotspots, Internet café entrepreneurs and telecommuting. However, advances in networking and personal computing technology have changed the traditional office setting as well. Now, employees at some companies may have a favourite spot to plug in their laptops but the workstation isn't theirs - an added incentive to arrive early. This new configuration is called "hoteling" or "free addressing." (Source: Pittsburg Post Gazette) Aimless workers "wilfing" through cyberspace Bargain hunting? Planning a vacation? Retooling your MP3's playlists? A recent UK survey reveals that employees spend up to two days a month "wilfing," surfing the Web aimlessly while at work. Perhaps out of boredom or for escapism. The practice is nothing new, but the term is. The coinage is an abbreviation of the phrase, "What was I looking for?" which is undoubtedly the knee-jerk, stock phrase of any wilfer caught in the act. (Source: The Guardian) How much time to you spend surfing the Web for personal reasons while at work? To answer, visit Career zone, and check out the Your opinion matters section. TRENDSPOTTING Consumers as Creators If two heads are better than one - imagine what a crowd of them could accomplish. "Crowdsourcing" is relatively recent development of the Web 2.0, along with flash mobs, video blogging, social networking and VoIP. The movement stemmed from open-source code, then Wiki's. Now enterprising individuals are turning to the masses for concrete input on their next projects. Wide-eyed Internet mavens beware - what many in the virtual crowd don't know is no one among their ranks is getting rich. (Source: Business Week) Sales representatives in big demand by employers If you thought working retail was for the birds, you're mistaken. For a second year in a row, sales representatives, both B2B and B2C, are the employees most in demand according to an annual survey in the United States. A quick-glance top ten may hold some surprises for aspiring graduate students. Researchers concluded that the results are the early signs of a looming labour shortage as Baby Boomers retire. (Source: Canoe) CAREER PATH Filial piety key to Chinese jobs "Honour thy mother and father" is one of the Ten Commandment's in the Old Testament. And Santa Claus keeps a naughty/nice list that serves a similar end. But: who would have thought that filial piety would earn employees promotions? Special investigators for a Chinese county's government now interview friends and family members of existing employees to see whether they are nice to their parents and worthy of a promotion. (Source: BBC) Are you... thinking of spending the summer by the pool? Being a lifeguard is a typical summer job. Yet, according to Dutch researchers, people who work around chlorinated pools may develop respiratory problems. The research team surveyed 624 swimming pool employees and sampled air at six swimming pools. They measured trichloramine levels at all 38 pools included in the study to estimate long-term exposure among employees. Excessive humidity or inadequate ventilation at work were also more likely to cause breathing problems. (Source: Reuters) April 15 - 21 National Volunteer Week Canada-wide April 20 - 22 Global Youth Service Day World-wide April 25 - May 25 Keep it Atlantic Jobboom Roadshow Nova Scotia April 30 - May 2 6th Annual CTHRC Forum: "Can Tourism Deliver? Responding to the HR Crisis" Vancouver, BC April 30 - May 2 IT360° Conference & Expo 2007 Toronto, ON May 2 Youth Fest 2007 Surrey, BC May 2 - 4 Building Tomorrow Today 2007 Edmonton, AB May 3 Yukon Job Fair 2007 Whitehorse, YK May 7 Interview Workshop Montreal, QC May 9 SLOME 2007 London, ON May 9 - 11 BC HRMA's 2nd Annual Provincial Charity Golf Tournament Vancouver, BC May 12 - 16 Connecting in the Global Village Winnipeg, MB May 14 7th Annual Montreal Self-Employed Artists Conference Montreal, QC May 15 - 16 Alberta Skills Competition and Trade and Technology Career Fair Edmonton, AB May 22 - 25 CCA's Annual Conference 2007: Connecting with our clients Vancouver, BC June 3 - 6 CACEE's 2007 National Conference Kingston, ON NOTICE: Jobboom and its sponsors do not necessarily endorse the opinions conveyed in the articles selected for this e-zine and do not assume any legal liability in consequence thereof. Comments: info@jobboom.com Research and editing: Austin Macdonald #noDossier#