Which co-workers can you trust and which are out to shut down your career? Use these methods to test the staff and find out who’s on your side.

Sometimes, the office can be as treacherous to navigate as the prison yard at San Quentin. You may not wind up with a shank in your side, but there’s a better-than-even chance somebody wants to stab you in the back and use your stinkin’ carcass as a stepping stone for their own advancement.

Office predators are constantly looking for fresh prey to steal credit from, or dump on to cover their own crappy work or simply thin out the herd so they can stand out in a smaller crowd.

Face it, kids: It’s a jungle in there. And short of carrying an elephant gun in your computer case -- which we’re sure is illegal in at least two states -- we’ve got some strategic advice to help you identify office enemies.

Establish Attack Patterns
When you’re dropped in-country on your first day of the job, it’s always smart to start with a fact-finding mission. Figure out who’s armed and who’s dangerous by debriefing office veterans. There’s no use spraying ammo -- unless you know where to aim.

“When you join any company, there is real benefit to identifying the culture,” says Roy Cohen, a former placement counselor for Goldman Sachs and a career coach for the Five O’Clock Club, a professional counseling network. “Ask for full scouting reports about who you can rely on and who to be wary of. But do it in a way that makes it seem like you want to find the best method to work with everybody. You may get surface-y answers at first, but people tend to send signals about people that may indicate where you should place your trust.”

Don’t Play Your Cards Until They Play Theirs
You can ask for advice and talk to people to fit into the office environment, but never share secrets with your co-workers until you’re sure you can trust them. “It’s always best to do substantial research on your colleagues before you reveal too much about yourself,” says Cohen. “If you see them use information against other colleagues, you’ll know not to take them into your circle of trust.”

Make Allies in the Trenches
Sure, it helps to have the boss on your side, but you’ll find your most effective recon outside the executive offices. Secretaries, assistants, even the cleaning staff see how people really act -- and they know where their bodies are buried.

“It’s good to get to know everyone in the office environment,” says Cohen. “People below the management level often have a good perspective on everyone’s true behavior and habits. They’re exposed to people as they really are and can give you good insights into who to trust and who to look out for.”

If There’s Smoke … Let Your Co-workers Help You Find the Fire
Keep your ears open for any bad news that might surface about you. If somebody’s cooking up foul rumors, “ask your co-workers where they heard these rumors, then go to that person directly -- as quickly as possible,” says Holly Green, CEO and managing director of The Human Factor, a management consulting firm. Tell the cook you’d like to help him whip up a better batch with more accurate information.

Green points out that letting rumors run wild is like leaving a fire unattended. Put your enemy at ease by letting them know you’ve come armed with the best intentions. Green suggests saying something like, “I am assuming you had good intentions, but can you help me understand why you said XXX? In the future, if you have any questions about me or something I did, please let me know. I really want to work effectively with you, and that would help a lot.”

Stay Focused on Finger Pointers
Fingers are often loaded … and will eventually point at you! If there’s someone in the office who’s the Babe Ruth of the blame game, get on their team ASAP. “If you see someone deflecting responsibility from themselves by blaming other people, disable their digits by offering to help them solve the problem early in the game,” says Cohen. “Offer to assist them in finding a solution without engaging in a blame game. This will prove you’re task-oriented and someone they can rely on -- plus you’ll build political equity in the office.” Bottom line: You’ve just slipped into a finger-proof vest!

Make Sure You’re Really in the Crosshairs Before Firing Back
Hey, Mr. Sensitive, not everybody’s out to get you! If you think someone’s unnecessarily tearing up you or your work, make sure you’re not just freakin’ paranoid. “Before you do something that might label you a troublemaker in the office place, do a reality check with your colleagues,” says Cohen. “But don’t do it in a way that suggests you have a problem with this person. Ask [a colleague] if they have any recommendations about how you can best develop a successful working relationship with your tormentor (but don’t call them that -- try “co-worker” instead). You may learn that this is just their working style and not a personal vendetta.”

Football season’s best action isn’t on the field -- it’s in the stadium parking lot. Here’s how to throw a bash that’ll make people forget about the game.

Sure, the real celebrities are inside the stadium getting ready for kickoff. But the parking lot is your place to shine -- as the Peyton Manning or Tom Brady of tailgating parties.

Reaching elite level isn’t easy, though. It takes discipline, practice, the proper equipment and the right coaching -- which is provided here by two of the world’s top minds in this ever-competitive field. Follow their game plan, and you may never even bother making your way to your seats inside for the main event.

Know the Ground Rules
Stadiums set up strict rules for tailgating -- and their security crews enforce them aggressively. Are bottles legal? Can you use only charcoal grills, or does it have to be gas? “What’s most confusing is that the rules can change from year to year. So even if you’ve been to the stadium before, check on its Web site beforehand to know what you can and can’t do,” says Joe Kahn, who runs the Tailgating Web site and has cooked out at 31 NFL stadiums, 123 college stadiums and nine NASCAR venues.

Create a Checklist
“The biggest mistake people make for the tailgate barbecue is actually forgetting to bring the grill or the food,” says Deidra Darsa of the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association. (She should know. Her organization actually took a poll on the topic.) Trying to come up with a new game plan from the parking lot is always a disaster. So before you go, write a list of everything you need to bring -- the food, fuel, grill, condiments, ice, utensils, napkins, chairs, cheese-heads and whatever else. Then, as you’re loading the vehicle, double-check that all’s accounted for.

Get There as Soon as the Parking Gates Open
The time varies, usually between three and four hours before the event -- though in some places, like Penn State, visitors can arrive up to two days beforehand. Arriving at the parking area early “will allow you to get the grill going so you can enjoy the food and socialize,” says Darsa. Adds Kahn: “A tailgate is like a community social. You want to enjoy yourself and not feel rushed.”

Keep It Simple 
Overlook this rule at your peril. Serving up prime rib and chicken cordon bleu sounds great, but in practice can be a pain to prepare, and more important, hard for partygoers to eat. “This isn’t a cooking contest. Emeril isn’t going to show up,” says Kahn. His advice: Prepare the food beforehand as much as you can so it’s easy to cook at the tailgate, and make everything bite-size so your guests can eat with one hand. Instead of steaks, do kebabs. Instead of super-size burgers, make sliders. And leave the deep fat fryer at home. Not only is cooking with it a hassle, but it’s a safety hazard in confined areas like parking lots.

Spy on the Opposition and Steal Their Plays
“Walk around while you’re there, look at what other people are doing,” says Kahn. “You’ll get a lot of great ideas for future tailgates.” The more you learn from the success of others, the greater your chances of becoming a prime-time player -- in the parking lot.

They may be called career “fairs,” but they’re hardly carnivals. Treat them as daylong job interviews -- with multiple suitors -- and you’ll be poised to land a plum position.

We know all’s fair in love and war, but what’s fair at a job fair? Are certain questions off limits? What should you wear? How do you set yourself apart from the pack?

To get you the answers you need, Men’s Life Today interviewed a trio of experts who make a career out of helping others find careers. These in-the-know people are Eric Winegardner, a vice president at Monster Worldwide, parent company of the Monster Web site; Allison Nawoj, corporate communications manager for the CareerBuilder Web site; and Andrew Cronan, human relations professional and executive director of career services at New York’s Fordham University

Men’s Life Today: Are companies that show up for job fairs really hiring or are they just trawling for resumes?
Cronan: In this economy, no corporation can afford to attend a career fair if it doesn’t have jobs to offer.

MLT: What if the companies coming to the fair are not on my short list of places to work?
Cronan: Don’t rule them out. Even if an employer is outside your current industry, you never know what positions the company may have available or how its representatives can help you.

MLT: What’s the best way to prepare?
Nawoj: Visit the Web sites of participating companies, read their press releases and search local newspapers for information on them. Also scour job boards for openings at the respective companies. Arrive at the fair ready to speak about those specific positions and explain why you believe your skills match the job.

Cronan: Don’t show up asking, “So what jobs do you have?” or worse, “What does your company do?” Also, to ease your nerves and get you in the habit of selling yourself, ask a friend or family member to help you practice your elevator speech -- a 30-second pitch that sums up your skills and offerings.

MLT: How long should I spend there?
Winegardner: Plan to stay the entire day and see everyone. Yes, everyone. You never know when a connection you’ve made will lead to a job. And make sure to also speak with the people waiting in line with you.

MLT: What should I wear?
Winegardner: Consider this your first interview. Dress at least one level above what you’d be wearing on the job.

Nawoj: Err on the side of conservative. You only have a few seconds to make a good first impression, so do it right.          

MLT: What should I bring?
Nawoj: Make sure you have plenty of updated resumes -- and make sure they are proofread and free of errors.

Winegardner: If you are exploring more than one sort of job, be sure to bring resumes tailored to each type of job you’re seeking. Also bring business cards and don’t forget to ask the interviewers for their cards. You don’t necessarily need to bring references; in fact, keeping them aside can provide you with a good excuse to follow up.          

MLT: What’s the best way to manage my time?
Winegardner: Begin with the companies you’re least interested in. This will give you the chance to build your confidence and practice. Just don’t wait too long to meet with the companies you really want to target. It will be harder to make a memorable impression on someone at the end of a long day.

MLT: How long should I expect with each recruiter?
Cronan: No more than five minutes, maybe less. Recruiters will decide within the first 45 seconds whether your resume is going into Pile A or Pile B and also whether it’s going to the top or bottom of those piles. Make eye contact, use a firm handshake, speak clearly and have a rehearsed introduction ready to go. End your introduction with a question, which will help you engage the recruiters.

MLT: What if they ask about my salary requirements?
Cronan: It’s a “gotcha” question. In all likelihood, they are trying to see how you handle uncomfortable situations. Stay calm and instead of answering directly, say you’d love to hold off on the compensation discussion until you can meet them for a follow-up. Likewise, you should not bring up salary yourself.

MLT: How should I wrap up the exchange?
Winegardner: Something along the lines of “I’d love to stay connected with you. What’s the best way for me to do that?” If all has gone according to plan, you’ll be well on your way to scheduling your second interview.

Looking for a get-smart shortcut? The right mix of flicks will serve as a veritable Cinema U: You can really learn something by watching them. Here’s our brain-boosting lineup.

Where can you find a better blueprint for life than the movies? These days we look to cinematic fiction for answers to life’s most perplexing questions, such as, Where else can an over-the-hill fat dude like Jack Nicholson be paid zillions to parody himself again?

Ah, but we digress. Educationally speaking, the movies don’t just lecture you like a burned-out, tenured professor: They put you in the action. Plus the movies can out-multimedia just about any lecture class. Watch enough of the right flicks, and you may just qualify for a degree in business, politics, sociology -- even grifting. And think how far all that will go when time comes to make career choices, sound witty at social mixers and impress a worthy lady.

Yes, Cinema U is officially in session. These flicks are packed with smart bombs that’ll serve you well for the rest of your life. Watch and learn:

Shanghai

Check It out: September 4
John Cusack is a U.S. intelligence operative desperately trying to find his missing American buddy in Shanghai just days before the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. As he frantically tries to find his friend, the search is complicated by local gangsters, Japanese invaders, a Chinese chick (Gon Li) who runs sweet and sour on him, and the realization that he’s not sure he can trust his own government.

The Smart Bomb
Cusack’s undercover navigation of pre-war Shanghai reveals a fascinating, culturally rich -- but also slightly seamy -- melting-pot community we never knew existed. The film shows that pre-World War II Shanghai was an international community of refugees, artists, spies, and best of all, breathtakingly beautiful Gon Lis.

Also …
Creativity cannot be stifled. Shanghai’s international community was the birthplace of China’s thriving film industry, which was squashed by the Japanese occupation during the war. The industry clandestinely slipped out of what became Red China and off to Hong Kong to give birth to the careers of our favorite imports: Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

Whiteout

Check It out: September 11
Based on the wildly popular 1998 graphic novel, Whiteout is the story of the world’s hottest United States marshal (Kate Beckinsale), who is, um, hot on the trail of the first and only serial killer in the world’s coldest place, Antarctica. The problem? Winter is only three days away (so forget about seeing Kate slip into a bikini at the polar ice cap). Also, with winter come six months of darkness … in which she would be stuck with the Abominable Snowciopath.

The Smart Bomb
Geography meets criminal justice studies meets ice-onography. The story offers the eye-opening and groin-freezing scenario in which we see how U.S. marshals are the only law enforcement agency charged with protecting the world’s largest and least inviting continent. When Carrie Stetko (Beckinsale) is sent to the most isolated, barren and scariest landmass on earth to shut down a serial killer terrorizing a U.S. research base, she has to do it in temperatures that drop to 120 F below 0, winds that will rip your skin off at up to 200 mph and a serious absence of backup when the bodies begin to pile up -- all of which leads us to wonder who her high school career counselor was.

Also …
In the original graphic novel, Stetko was a little overweight and got a bit of help from a female U.N. investigator … with whom (it was implied) she melts a little ice. In the film, though, the investigator is a dude (actor Garbiel Macht). Maybe we should go back to using comics as reference books.

The Informant

Check It out: September 18
Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) was bored working at an Illinois food processing company. So, more to make himself feel important than to actually help anybody, Whitacre goes undercover for the FBI to uncover his company’s massive price-fixing scandal -- while he’s in the midst of stealing $9 million bucks himself. True story.

The Smart Bomb
Aside from focusing on Whitacre’s clueless efforts to be a hero, this story offers riveting detail about how the food industry holds not only your tummy hostage but also your wallet. In real life, Whitacre wore a wire for three years and helped record video footage of high-level meetings, where execs conspired with each other to set food additive prices well above market value so they could stuff their pockets as you stuff your face.

Also …
Elaborate FBI stings follow white-collar crime everywhere -- even in boring industries. That’s right: Somebody’s making dough by charging too much for, um, dough. So if you’re jacking up the sugar packets at your local 7-Eleven, watch your back, Jack. And if you’re going to be an informant, you may want to avoid being a thief while working for the man. Whitacre’s prison term was three times longer than that of the guys he helped nab.

Capitalism: A Love Story

Check It out: September 23
Michael Moore, that hefty dude with the baseball cap and suspicious nature,  celebrates the 20th anniversary of his breakout film Roger & Me -- about the suspicious collapse of the auto industry -- with a new film about the suspicious collapse of the overall economy. The new flick takes a comical look at the corporate and political high jinks that culminated in what Moore has described as “the biggest robbery in the history of this country”: the massive transfer of U.S. taxpayer money to private financial institutions to bail out fat guys with billion-dollar bonuses.

The Smart Bomb
Forget smart bomb -- this one’s an all-out genius bomb: A study of economics, politics, business and thievery all in one! Were this one to translate to college credits, you could cash it in for a quadruple major.

As in his previous documentaries, Moore blindsides his targets when they least expect it. Here, he corners top corporate and banking executives as they fly to their private islands on personal jets that they bankrolled with bonuses they set aside for themselves -- despite managing funds that bankrupted investors. Then Moore gets them to not explain how they can live with themselves on our money.

Also …
Moore details how these guys siphoned funds, pensions, savings and more while the people who trusted them with their life savings went broke. So if you’re up to no good, you may want to stay on Moore’s good side.

More Than a Game

Check It out: October 2
This documentary follows five poor kids from Akron, Ohio, through their high school hoop careers. Not unusual, except when you consider that one, LeBron James, has gone on to become the world’s best player and that they wind up playing for the national championship.

The Smart Bomb
The kids are shown dealing with the pressures of poverty, publicity that comes with competing in the national media spotlight and the heat from that spotlight intensified 100 times because James has been earmarked by the media -- and NBA scouts -- as the best high school player in the cosmos. But despite everybody wanting to get their hands on James, nobody is able to pull these five guys apart. Even when James is banned from a game for allegedly accepting the gift of a car (a no-no he was later cleared of), the kids rely on the bond they formed in Akron to keep them together and help them achieve their individual goals -- as a team. 

Also …
Be true and loyal to your friends, and teamwork will always win out. (Of course, it’s easy to win games with LeBron James on your team.)

If you think Top 40 is not so tops and want your tunes to be more cutting-edge, you need to know where to find the best music. Read on.

Your local radio station plays the same 10 songs over and over again. MTV is too busy airing "Real World/Road Rules Challenge" marathons to actually bother showing videos anymore. Print music magazines are rapidly dying off.

So where can a music fan such as yourself find out about the newest, edgiest tunes? Here are a few expert tips for discovering music outside the realm of the Top 40:

Enter the Blogosphere
Blogs are a great place to learn about -- and, just as important, to hear -- indie and alternative rock. The challenge for beginners is finding the good ones.

“There are roughly 5,094,947 music blogs on the Internet,” jokes Ryan Dombal, a staff writer at Pitchfork, a popular indie rock Web site (technically not a blog) credited with helping break acts like the Arcade Fire and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. “Pitchfork breaks through the MP3 din, hitting on things people care about” via album reviews (the site employs an infamous 0.0 to 10.0 rating scale), artist news and interviews, and links to the latest videos and audio files.

Another good starting point is the indie rock blog Stereogum. “After you find one blog or site that corresponds with your personal taste, check out the other blogs or sites it links to,” Dombal recommends. “It’s a process of trial and error, but it's worth it when you’re eventually exposed to your favorite new band.”

Tune Into the Net
“Commercial radio is all about finding that mass-appeal audience, and if mass appeal is your bottom line, you’re going to cut out a lot of interesting music,” says Mike Taylor, program director and DJ for the Cincinnati-based Web site WOXY. A terrestrial radio station in the past, WOXY has been broadcasting exclusively online since 2004. Its DJs cater to a select audience; current station faves include the female singer-songwriter St. Vincent and Brooklyn indie rockers White Rabbits. If you like a song you hear on WOXY, you can click on the link to the Web site Lala and buy the MP3. “We act as a filter for new music,” Taylor says.

To find other online broadcasters catering to your tastes, check out station aggregator Web sites like Shoutcast or Live365. iTunes also offers free Net radio streams. Or let a computer try to figure out what you’d like: Web sites like Pandora, Last (.fm) and iLike will personalize playlists for you based on your top artists.

Get out of the House
The Internet is a wonderful tool for discovering cool new tunes. But sometimes it’s nice to talk music with an actual human being -- you know, face-to-face (like back in 1999). If you’re lucky enough to still have one or more independent record stores in your town, visit! “I think it’s easier to talk to someone working at a store than hunt down music on different blogs,” says Scott Wishart, co-owner of Lunchbox Records in Charlotte, N.C. “I can recommend something similar to what they like and play it for them on the stereo -- or they can listen to it on headphones in the back.”

Wishart advises developing a rapport with a local record store clerk so he or she can get to know your tastes and avoiding the snobs (think: Jack Black in High Fidelity), if possible. Finally, once you’ve found music you love, separate yourself from the computer as often as possible to see your new favorites live. “Show up early for shows and catch the opening bands,” advises Pitchfork’s Dombal. “That’s how I first heard about this band called The Strokes. And if the opening act sucks, you can make fun of them with your friends.”