Ah – summer and the summer job. The first ones stay with us forever, whether we work as an admin in Mom’s business, a caddy on the links or at the Farmers Market. Some find first jobs in factories, others in candy shops.

This year, though, summer jobs look scarce for youth. Teen unemployment nationally tops 25 percent in April, and is higher than that in some hard-hit areas of California or Michigan.  So teens need help, lots of it.

That’s why Mity Nice and I are launching an ambitious series of teen job search tips. They’re culled from many sources and experts and from my life experience and expertise. After all, I’m a mom of three as well as a careers and workplace writer, and co-owner of Mity Nice, which hires teens to sell Italian ice and support charities in and around Ann Arbor. We know we can’t hire all the teens that need jobs this summer, or even a small percent of them. So we hope to help them with some advice and encouragement.

The tips will be offered on Mity Nice’s Facebook page, and also collected here. We’ll give one a day, or five each week for at least six weeks.

Here’s a sneak peak at the first three, a long-form version of what’s on Facebook:

1. Know what employers look for.

Some traits are universal:  NACE, the National Association of Colleges and Employers, lists five top qualities: communication skills, analytical skills, teamwork, technical skills and a strong work ethic.   The American Management Association’s four Cs add to that list creativity and innovation.

Many of these are the very skills that make you a good student or the go-to co-captain of your sports team – the “soft skills” that you learn from teachers, parents, teammate. And a few requirements are specific to a job, such as lifeguard’s need for certification or sous chef must know how to chop and saute vegetables.

Either way, build these skills – and these words – into your resume and into your introduction to a future boss.

2. Develop a positive and confident attitude.

“Confidence is about trusting oneself,”" said the Buddhist monk Gayuna Cealo. You may feel very nervous about finding a job – that’s natural. When you go into a business to apply, push all that away. Take a deep breath. And fake it until you make it.

Another way to build confidence: Ask your best friend or a teacher  to list five great attributes you have. Write them down, put the list in your iPhone — and look at them often.

A third confidence booster: Practice. Recruit a friend to rehearse for job interviews. Or practice the introduction you’ll give walking into the store to  land a summer job. Or practice your affirmation – repeat it every time you wash your hands. (Yes, you can say it silently when you’re in the ladies’ room after gym.)

3. Create a resume.

Even if you’ve never held a paying job before, you really really need one. A resume is an important marketing tool – and a valuable way to gather up all the great things you’ve ever done or achieved, at least since you’ graduated from tricycle to two-wheeler. Your resume is an opportunity to tell your future boss that you’re a standout and you put extra effort in – whether it’s for a sport, a hobby, your classes, your volunteer activities or your friends.

If you can’t imagine what you’ll say, pull out your awards and recognitions. Then pull up your computer and send three adults who know you well these two questions: What have I accomplished or done that you think belongs on my resume? What three traits or qualities do I have that an employer will want?  (Yes, you may ask your BFF and your current beau those questions too, though they may not give you the best, resume-ready answers.)

Resumes are so important, Vickie wrote a longer blog post on creating a first resume. Read it soon – and then use it to create yours, or your kids.

I’ll post bonus material on this blog too, such as some advice sent to me from employment and recruitment companies, and anything that needs a little extra space beyond the short tips.

Please share these tips with teens who are searching, and with their parents, who are important career advisors and cheerleaders. And sign onto our MityNice page to see more later this week.

Teen tips are copyright Vickie Elmer, 2010. For permission to republish or use them, please contact the author.

The new $100 bills was unveiled by the Treasury Department on Wednesday, complete with its anti-counterfeiting stripes, hidden images and copper bell.

The debut of the Ben Franklin bill gives me an excuse to write about professions that pay $100 an hour – or more – to their top practitioners.  I’m not talking about people who make $100 an hour once or twice a year. I mean those who earn $100 an hour for just about every hour they work.

That means they make around $200,000 a year – more if they win a bonus or take on extra consulting gigs, less if they take a six-week leave to explore India with their mother or daughter.  Some 3.9 million Americans earned $200,000 to $1 million a year in adjusted gross income, according to the Internal Revenue Service,  counting individuals and many dual income earning families. That means almost 9 percent of all  households — or at least those who filed tax returns — are bringing in a C-note an hour (though that includes investment and other taxable income).

My lists of occupations comes straight from the government, as will those cool new $100 bills. These are drawn from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates for May 2008, the most recent data available.

The first list is those professions that definitely have plenty of $100 an hour people, even though the job category’s average pay doesn’t approach that.

Definitely $100 and up jobs:

1. Surgeons,  average $207,000 or $99.41 an hour

2. Anesthesiologists,  $198,000

3. Orthodontists,   $195,000

4. Chief executives,  $160,000 or $77.13 an hour

5. Dentists,  $154,000

6. Natural sciences managers, $123,000 or $59.30 an hour

7. Lawyers, $124,000 or $53.17 an hour

The BLS also gives some details on people’s income if they’re in the 90th percentile of their occupation or if they work in a city where their skillsets are sought after. So engineering managers in San Jose earn more than their counterparts in any other city, while dentists in Anchorage get some of the highest paychecks.

Also on that list are a variety of other doctors – from obstetricians to internists to psychiatrists. Despite being in short supply for years, nurses don’t even come close – they average around $65,000 and the top 10 percent earn maybe $50 an hour or less.

My second list, also drawn from the BLS data, includes occupations where it seems very likely some people reap pay of $100 an hour, either for consulting or project work or where their tenure and value reaches its zenith. Besides the BLS data, I’m relying on my 20-plus years as a business writer or editor.

Here’s’ probably $100 an hour types,with their average income

1. Airline pilots, $119,700

2.  Securities broker / sales person  $92,000

3. Petroleum engineers  $119,000

4. Physicists  $106,000

5. Engineering managers, $121,000

6. Computer, information systems managers $119,000

7. Management consultants  N/A

9. Professors, law or medical $101,000 and $102,000

10. Producers and directors, $83,000

All the salary figures are average annual earnings, from the BLS. So while one producer earns $19,000 a year running a small town theater company part-time, another one earns $205,000 for some big New York troupe or movie production company.

So how can you bring up your earnings so those new $100 bills will show up more often in your wallet? That sounds like a good subject for another blog post sometime soon. Or maybe a series of posts. So if you have great ideas on adding to your earnings, please send them my way.

Meanwhile, check out the amazing BLS document that is the statistical source for this. It’s chock full of data on 800 occupations, including quite a few that don’t earn $100 a day and a handful that earn $100 an hour but only in some locations.  Dentists in Alaska, for example, earn the highest average wage – and average $97.30 an hour, or $203,000 a year.  Anesthesiologists in Maryland and Kentucky earn $103 an hour or more, and they earn still higher wages in New Jersey and Washington state, though the BLS tables don’t give specifics.

As for me, I’d be happy to earn $100 an hour for my writing -  and hope to achieve that some day and for more than a few days. Just don’t expect me to don a surgical gown or wear a power tie or move to Alaska to collect it.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

If you want to see more on the new $100 bills, which debut to the public in February, check out the New York Times Bucks blog, or a video showing all the security details  and some music that would be right at home on the 4th of July. My prefered paper, The Washington Post , ran the Associated Press account on the new big bill.

It could be title inflation or education’s advantage. Or executive privilege. Or more responsibilities.

Whatever the reasons, an executive assistant makes a lot more than a secretary – about 60 percent more last year, according to Compensation Data annual pay survey

As they celebrate Administrative Professionals Week, the secretary has little to celebrate on the wage front. She averages just $31,300 a year  – or about $602 a week – according to Compensation Data’s 2009 survey of 5,300 employers.

Administrative assistants fares a bit better, earning $35,700 on average, or $687 a week.

Better still to work as an executive assistant , who makes an average of $49,600, or $954 a week.

Of course, the executive assistant job generally requires a bachelor’s degree and at least three years experience as an admin, while many secretaries can get hired with a high school diploma and a good recommendation.

The pay gap between the three sisters of admin jobs has existed for years, since at least 2004, Compensation Data’s surveys show.

The federal government’s Occupational Outlook Handbook also acknowledges the wide variety of salaries, reflecting varied skill levels and responsibilities. It shows a $11,000 median pay difference between secretary and executive secretary and administrative assistant  (who are joined in one group in the Labor Department reports). That gap grew by $1,000 or more in recent years.

Secretaries and administrative assistants are still one of the largest occupations in the United States, with 4.3 million workers in 2008. Of that, 1.59 million serve in higher paying executive and administrative assistants jobs, an increase of more than 10 percent over three or so years.

The fastest growing administrative job through 2018 will be medical secretaries, which will add 125,000 jobs for a 27 percent gain. Some of the openings, the government report notes, will result from admins leaving their profession, or getting promoted to higher and better paying jobs.

The best paying admin jobs are found at music / recording companies, securities exchange or brokerage houses or the executive branch of the federal government. Their annual paycheck tops others by a $11,000 a year or more, or more than 30 percent, the government reported.

So if you’re taking your secretary or admin to lunch this week, use the time to discuss her career goals and ways to build her skills. Or give her a professional membership or some educational reimbursement instead of flowers, OfficeTeam suggests. (It has a downloadable report called 25 Ways to Recognize Your Staff .)

Just don’t call her a secretary in handing out an assignment, a gift – or a raise.

This posting was adapted and updated from a Washington Post Working from three years ago. I hold the copyright on this article and all my blog posts.

If you think all the salaries being offered to fresh young grads are rice-and-beans low, you haven’t talked to any chemical engineering majors.

Their starting pay for this year is $65,142, second highest in the National Association of Colleges and Employers just released list of majors with the best salaries. The top spot went to petroleum engineers, a scarce lot of barely 500 graduates in recent years. In a year when salary freezes and reductions were common, they will earn $3,000 more on average than last year.

In fact, engineers claim eight of the 10 highest salaries in NACE’s annual survey, and they’ve been near the top for a few years.

The top five this year are:

1.  Petroleum engineering  - $86,220

2. Chemical engineering  - $65,142

3. Mining / mineral engineering – $64,552

4.  Computer science  - $61,205

5. Computer engineering – $60,879

Others in the top 10 include electrical engineering, manufacturing engineering and information sciences; each will start at salaries above $53,000 on average.

“Many of the engineering disciplines benefit from an imbalance in the supply/demand ratio,” NACE executive director Marilyn Mackes said in a report on salaries last summer. That scarcity of candidates leads to higher pay.

B-school graduates salaries start around $45,000 to $49,000 this year, a small drop from last year.

NACE will give more entry level college grad salary details in April. The 2009 grads experienced a 1.2 percent drop in average salary, to $49,353.

This year’s average declined to  $48,351 based on NACE’s preliminary estimate. Many newcomers start their first job out of college at $30,000.  The average figure covers liberal arts majors, b-school and the techies too.