National Edition - April 20, 2008  What type of employee are you? Find out with our personality tests. Jobboom visitors are now eligible for discount rates on e-Career Fit evaluations via our website. Check out the three tests below - they're bound to pique your interest: - eCF Personal Styles Assessment : Discover your strengths, limitations and personal style. - eCF Work Values Assessment : Identify which values are important to you, then capitalize on them to land the perfect job. - eCF Entrepreneur Index : Find out if you've got what it takes to be your own boss. Generation X glum on retirement prospects Why so glum, chum? Youth usually consider themselves immune, invincible and immortal. So it's spend, spend, spend: fast cars, big houses, skinny jeans and huge lines of credit. Yet, members of Generation X tend to lose some of their devil-may-care attitudes when they pick their heads up from their heaping plates of sushi and peer into the future. In places like Ontario, the government has lifted the mandatory age of retirement, in part because many Baby Boomers of a certain age simply weren't ready to retire. Savings? RRSP contributions? Dollar-cost averaging? If you scoff at these terms now, young Gen-Xer, you probably won't be ready for retirement either. (Source: Reuters) Mexican cartel recruiting hitmen All's relatively quiet in Medellin, Colombia. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, the new flashpoint of the War on Drugs. In a cheeky move, a Mexican drug cartel is borrowing Uncle Sam's slogan to recruit drug mules and vigilantes along the Mexican-American boarder for entry-level roles in smuggling and strong-arming. "The Zetas want you!" They offer benefits for family and promise to feed hearty meals to their rank-and-file. This is in contrast to soldiers in the Mexican army who receive rations of instant noodles. Decisions, decisions, decisions... (Source: Associated Press) 'Sign spinners,' the new sandwich men In America, a new company is recruiting a different type of human billboard, one that requires performance, athleticism, a positive attitude, eye contact and smiles. "Sign spinners" must perform tricks with their signs in public places, stopping long enough in-between manoeuvres to let onlookers see what's being advertised. The marketing company in charge runs a sign-spinning boot camp, where prospects learn the basic sign flip, the helicopter and the "around the world." Along with an hourly wage there's the added incentive of 10 cents per trick. Really, some employers demand far too much, and these aspiring sign spinners could look for work as band marshals instead. (Source: Agence France Presse) Preparing new leaders for success As an organization's traditional leaders jump ship for the greener pastures of retirement, new managers are the latest darlings of the workforce, receiving much hand-holding from human resource practitioners and organizational behaviour specialists. In a way, it's necessary. Skilled, motivated, driven employees are being promoted in greater numbers, and much more quickly, than in the past. This means that despite their qualities, they are generally unprepared for the management ranks. The usual sink-or-swim attitude has to be modified for these new managers, who are inexperienced but have to hit-the-ground running. Supporting them before and after the promotion is important to the company's succession management strategy. The goal is to avoid promotion failure, which typically happens one third of the time. (Source: Jobboom, Career Zone) Preparation tips for college job fairs On-campus career fairs are an excellent place to find your first job after graduation. To make this work, however, you will have to prepare. This article contains helpful tips such as, don’t smoke before the fair (smelling of tobacco is a definite turn-off these days), dress appropriately, and think about preparing a sound byte about yourself to give to potential employers. But it's not all talk; attendees should have a good attitude and show that they are keen listeners. Don't show up in your pyjamas. And crashing other faculties’ career fairs can also yield unexpected, positive results. (Source: Jobboom, Career Zone) Did you land your first job at a college or university job fair? To answer, click here. Do you... have problems with the frickin' printer? It's inevitable, and it’s widely known that today's office workers have a latent rage against the gadgets that surround them. This online gallery of photos contains eye candy that will provide some cathartic relief. The perpetrators explain their art: "Our hatred for the machine had to do with the fact that it was the accounting machine rather than for any real flaws." "The aftermath of what was left after dropping the phone down four flights of stairs, throwing it against a wall multiple times, and hitting it with any other object I could find." "The thing would randomly reboot on me, play the sms sound when no sms's would come in, light up at night randomly and illuminate my room." (Source: Wired) April 22 Habits of Effective Sales Organizations Montreal, QC April 28 Baristas Program Vancouver, BC April 30 - May 2 Building Tomorrow Today 2008 Edmonton, AB May 1 Psychologically Healthy Workplace Awards 2008 Toronto, ON May 8 Summer Hiring Fair Calgary, AB May 10 – 18 Canada-wide Science Fair Ottawa, ON May 20 - 22 Futurallia Québec 2008 Quebec City, QC May 25 - 28 Canadian Skills Competition Calgary, AB May 25 - 28 Rendezvous Canada Vancouver, BC May 28 Self Employment Discovery Workshop Toronto, On May 28 Conquering the Behavioural Interview Oakville, ON May 31 Calgary Education Fair Calgary, AB June 2 - 3 STORE 2008, Canada's Retail Conference Toronto, ON June 8 – 10 Apprenticeship – Our Competitive Advantage Victoria, BC June 16 Bio Career Fair San Diego, CA 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#