Name: Erich Wirtanen
Job Title: Foods Team Lead
Where: Rosemount, MN
Years of Experience: 2
Education: Currently enrolled at Rosemount High School
Salary: Research salaries for food service jobs and amusement park salaries.

High School Summer Jobs - Food Service Job Opportunities

For students in high school, summer jobs can offer great opportunities to gain work experience, earn extra money, and even have fun. In this Salary Story, we hear from one high school student who explains how he went about applying for summer jobs, why he sought out food service job opportunities, and what he learned from the whole experience. Keep reading to find out why summer jobs can be both educational and fun.

PayScale: What is the job description for a foods team lead?

A foods team lead is in charge of a specific building in the amusement park. You are responsible for making sure all the operations in your building are functioning properly. Starting the first day, you begin prepping all of the food and operate on a register face-to-face with every customer. You not only have the task of serving the customer, but also making the food and making sure every part of your building is functioning properly. When something goes wrong you’re the first one to fix it. Whether it is a machine malfunction or an upset customer, you must maintain the values of the park and fix it to the best of your ability, always with a smile. Part of keeping your building functioning is making sure it does not run out of raw materials; you are in charge of making sure you order enough for your building every day. You also have to make sure all your employees eat lunch. You need to keep track of who is on break so your building always has enough staff to run properly. At the end of the day you have to clean your building so it is ready for you to open it back up the next morning.

In a recent project with blogger/career guru Penelope Trunk, we examined the age at which salaries top out. It turns out pay goes essentially nowhere after age 40. Of course there are some differences across gender, degree level and jobs, but the real lesson is don't expect a raise of any real value in the 25 or so years before retirement.

In this post I will discuss some interesting insights from the data, as well as how the age at which pay growth stops differs across various worker characteristics.

Are you earning what you are worth, given your experience, degrees, location and other critical factors that affect your pay? Find out with a free PayScale salary report.

Last year, PayScale predicted the winner of the Men's Division I NCAA basketball tournament based upon our favorite measure: salary. The 2010 winner was Duke Univeristy with an average salary amongst its grads of $104,000 per year. This year? We're not doing as well.

See our predictions for Salary Madness 2011.

Is someone in your office setting up a pool to predict the winner of the NCAA Division I Men’s basketball tournament? Maybe you’re rooting for the team with the best record in your favorite conference or are participating just for fun. While it may not make sense when it comes to strength and skill, PayScale welcomes you to follow our tradition of choosing the winner by our favorite factor: salary.

It's the Monday after Selection Sunday, which means we now know the NCAA division I basketball teams heading to the big dance. As everyone gets ready to fill out their brackets, we here at PayScale wish to offer an alternative method to determining who will take home the top honors.

What if the pay of a university's graduates predicts how well the school will do in the tournament? You might think this is a weird question, but it turns out our method won the tournament last year. Using this method, we chose Duke as the winner and as all you basketball fans know, Duke in fact beat Butler 61-59.

Check out our bracket this year, where we predict Princeton to be the winner based on the salary of its alumni/alumnae.

Is your salary a top seed or just barely making the play-in game? Find out with a free PayScale salary report.

Job Title: Auto Detailing Business Owner
Where: Bellevue, WA
Years of Experience: 30
Current Employer: Bradleys Detail of Bellevue
Education: Bachelor of Arts, University of Washington
Salary: Research median owner operator salaries and salaries for auto detailing jobs.

Auto Detailing Jobs - Auto Detailing Business Owner Profile

What is it like to run your own successful business? In this Salary Story, the owner of a luxury auto detailing business shares some of the challenges and rewards of owning a business. Information on starting a auto detailing business, managing auto detailing jobs, and the daily tasks of an owner operator are all included.

PayScale: What is your owner operator job description?

Owner operator of luxury auto detailing business. My job includes day-to-day operations of a company that specializes in polishing, waxing and shampooing of vehicles. I am responsible for the marketing, hiring, training and management of my workforce. I am also responsible for quality control.

By Lisa Johnson Mandell, AOL Jobs

If it seems to you that only those who are cocky and arrogant to get ahead, take heart! According to new performance review-based study from Baylor University, the more honesty and humility an employee may have, the higher their job performance will be rated.

Name: Kortni Butterton
Job Title: Restaurant Hostess
Where: Seattle, WA
Current Employer: 50 North
Years of Experience: 3.5
Education: Issaquah High School, Diploma; Bellevue College, Associate of Arts and Sciences; University of Washington, Communications and Sociology major
Salary: Research the median salary scale for restaurants, including restaurant hostess jobs.

Restaurant Job Descriptions - Restaurant Hostess

A restaurant hostess works on the front lines. As the first point of contact for customers, a hostess has the important task of creating an excellent first impression. It's not always easy, especially after a long shift or when dealing with difficult customers. In addition to representing the restaurant, a hostess often does a ton of behind-the-scenes work in order to keep things running smoothly. If you're wondering what it takes to make it in this job, don't miss this Salary Story from Kortni Butterton. She shares a detailed restaurant hostess job description and describes the ups and downs of working in the food service industry.

By Gwen Parkes, AOL Jobs

With so many people either unemployed or looking to change jobs in today's unpredictable economic environment, people are putting a lot of extra thought and time into their job searches, prepping for their interviews and padding their resumes to stand out as "the ideal hire." However, did you know that your fate as an earner could already be determined by your outward appearance and actions?