$100,000 for a Summer Job? Believe it.

• Author: LOWE, JAIME
• Position: Brief Article

NOT EVERYONE CAN EARN BIG BUCKS, BUT MORE AND MORE TEENS ARE USING SUMMER WORK FOR LONG-TERM PAYOFFS

Last summer Hans Pang, now 17, earned more than his parents, put together, made all year long. Working as a techie at Alteon Websystems, an Internet company in Palo Alto, California, for the third summer in a row, Pang made a strong impression as a problem solver. So strong, in fact, that the company gave him the option to buy company stock at a low price before it was offered to the public. That stock more than tripled in value the first day it went on sale last fall, and although it has gone up and down with the stock market since then, its value has hovered between $100,000 and $50,000.

"It hasn't changed my life" says Pang, "although I can go out to dinner with my friends more. But no one's treating me any differently. I didn't want any of my social life to change due to the increased wealth I have."

Few high school students may be able to match either Pang's skills or luck, but the days are gone when teenagers were limited to flipping burgers or mowing lawns during summertime. The surging national economy has increased the demand for workers in general, which means that high-schoolers don't necessarily have to settle for tedious, minimum-wage positions. "As the job market is expanding, so are the opportunities for all people involved," says Patricia Schwadron, a New York City career counselor.

Of course, the job market varies from place to place. And many high school students may have to settle for traditional positions. Still, creative and aggressive teens have a good chance to do what college students have been doing for years, which is to get summer work that may lead to a career.

Students can use a summer job to test out a particular kind of work that seems interesting. Or if they already know what they want to do, they can try to get an entry-level job in that field. Volunteering at a hospital or a nursing home, for example, could be invaluable experience toward a medical or social-service career.

Competition for the best jobs can be fierce. While there will be more jobs this summer, there are also more teens (19.8 million versus 18.2 million in 1995). "You need to utilize your contacts, network, talk to a guidance counselor, even look in the Yellow Pages," says Leslie Edelman, a career counselor at Northern Highlands High School in Allendale, New Jersey.

Networking paid off for Pang, who got his Alteon job through an eighth-grade...