TEN SIX-FIGURE JOBS WITHOUT A PROFESSIONAL DEGREE

BY JOE TAYLOR JR.

Earning $100,000 in any profession requires a combination of hard work, career training, and personal experience. These ten jobs prove that you can grow your salary to six figures without a law degree or a medical school diploma. In all ten cases, online career training programs can help you learn the skills to pursue a career with megabucks potential while continuing to build experience at your current job.

With education and will, these ten career equations offer ways to earn serious money:

#1: Marketing Manager + trend spotting = a Six-Figure Income. In today's economy, nearly every kind of enterprise requires a marketing manager to grow sales. So what makes a top manager? Professionals at the start of their marketing careers can use the best practices learned in online marketing degree programs to understand the constantly shifting landscape of sales and marketing. Having a nose for the financial news and being the first to spot a market trend means career advancement. According to government statistics, most marketing careers offer salaries and bonuses of over $100,000 at the executive level.

#2: Health Services Manager + the science of compliance = a Six-Figure Income. Complex legal requirements and pressure from insurance companies have created a demand for health services managers who can maintain compliance while maximizing profits. The top ten percent of healthcare management professionals can earn performance bonuses that raise their annual compensation packages to over $117,000. Experience managers with compliance skills will find that an online healthcare administration degree program can help them move from the job they have into a health care management position.

#3: Information Systems Manager + high goals = a Six-Figure Income. Set your sights on a CIO position if you want an information systems management position to payoff big time. If you're already a manager who likes deciding everything from hardware to personnel, pursuing a degree in IT online offers a convenient route into information systems management. Aim for the corner office and rack up some experience if you want your technology degree to yield a six-figure salary. More than half of the CIOs responding to a recent government salary survey reported annual incomes of over $100,000.

#4: Financial Manager + ethical choices = a Six-Figure Income. Having an MBA in finance is a good start, but even an MBA needs good experience and smart choices to grab a stratospheric salary as a financial manager. Today's highest paid CFOs blend career training with solid track records and high ethical standards. Finance careers in commodities brokerages offer salaries of over $120,000. Many online finance degree programs offer professionals the opportunity use work projects as research opportunities, making finance career training even more convenient.

#5: Human Resources Manager + high performance = a Six-Figure Income. In human resources, performance is golden. Successful HR managers do much more for their employers than stage recruiting fairs at local universities. By developing compensation programs and reducing employee turnover, HR managers can earn hefty bonuses. According to government statistics, the top ten percent earn over $129,000 annually. For professionals with business degrees, earning a human resource management degree online can be an exciting first step toward a job as a "talent tactician."

#6: Fashion Designer + uniquely individual style = a Six-Figure Salary. Winning "Project Runway" isn't the only way to earn $100,000 in a fashion design career. While many six-figure fashion designers may not yet be household names, they cater to clients who prefer custom couture. A high salary in a fashion design career requires more than just a fashion design degree, though. According to experts, successful designers must find a niche, market their brand, and build a loyal base of private clients.

#7: Court Reporter + overtime = a Six-Figure Salary. Even though government statistics show that many court reporters earn over $40,000 per year, some court reporters to have the chance to make much, much more money than that. Why? Document backlogs in certain cities have pushed overtime pay for court reporters to record levels. The court reporter who adds freelance transcribing for private depositions and business meetings to a base income can crack $100,000 per year. In addition to earning your bachelor's degree, most states require certification.

#8: Computer Application Development Manager + leadership = a Six-Figure Salary. Application development managers lead small teams of programmers through specific deadlines. Tight budgets and competition for graduates of computer programming degree programs keep AD managers busy. It's a career in which leadership pays. Most application development managers earn over $98,000 annually. Veteran managers skilled at getting the most out of their teams can earn a computer programming degree and make the leap to an AD management position.

#9: Nursing Supervisor + persistence in leadership = a Six-Figure Salary. At first glance, nursing schools don't seem like a rung in the mega money ladder. Still, some veteran nurses are realizing their dreams of becoming leaders in their field. By earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree, experienced registered nurses can qualify for higher-paying administrative jobs, earning about $55,000 per year. Given the competition in some cities for talented nursing career professionals, that income escalates dramatically. With persistence and performance, administrators who reduce turnover and maximize compliance can now reach six-figure incomes.

#10: Education Administrator + quality assurance = a Six-Figure Salary. Under pressure to save money while reducing class sizes, many school boards recruit expert leaders from the business community to serve as education administrators. School boards expect to pay these "civilians" more, so an effective leader can turn a degree in education administration into a six-figure career. Adding a master's in education administration to an existing business degree offers enterprise professionals a new career option. Although most education administrators earn about $77,000 per year, they too can hit six figures with bonuses for improving standardized test scores and staff turnover rates.

So, where there's a will, there's a way to a six figure salary--even in fields that don't yield six figures as a rule. These ten careers not only offer earning potential far beyond the norm (which the BLS reported at just short of $36,000 in 2005), they also lure workers pursuing allied career paths into getting enough education to jump ship. Perhaps 2008 will be the year you decide to join them.

STRIPPING HAMLET: A PREVIEW

I was rummaging a file of newspapers at the pres room a while ago when I found this very good article about Stripping Hamlet, which runs from February 1 to 17 at the Rep's Globe Theater Onstage, Second Floor, Greenbelt 1, Ayala Center, Paseo de Roxas cor Legaspi Street, City of Makati. I am posting it here for your intellectual consumption.


TO BE OR NOT TO BE ANA BITONG
By Tim Yap, Supreme editor and creative director
The Philippine Star, 26 January 2008, p. G-3



INTERNET PHOTO


THERE IS NOTHING more exciting than the thrill of the new. Ana Abad Santos-Bitong, the shining star of our local theater scene, is taking on a new role, a most challenging one for the Repertory stage's most sought after actress. This time, after years of taking on the lead in countless stage productions, she now takes the role of a ... director.

I have always been very vocal about my admiration for Ana Bitong as an actress. In fact, one of my first jobs in my young life was in the theater, as part of the production crew in Ana's first lead in a musical, "Little Shop of Horrors." Always awestruck by her presence, I would quietly watch Ana from the sidelines of the stage as the thespian's every move would never fail to captivate, amuse, and amaze.

In short, I was a fan.

These days, Ana has become a good friend, and along with her sister Cris Albert who runs Fila, we would have nice, long leisurely lunches talking about our lives and loves—from the sporting life to the arts, there is nothing that these two sisters cannot accomplish. Next week, February 1 to be exact, I am making a mad dash to the Globe Onstage Theater to witness Ana's directorial debut. "This is Hamlet, Mad Max style," explains Ana, her eyes beaming with excitement.

I last saw Ana on stage as the feisty reporter Barbara Avila in Jessica Hagedorn's "Dogeaters" by Atlantis Productions. She was the narrator of the show, and in between scenes, she would transform from a reporter to an NPA rebel to a party girl—the whole gamut of roles showcasing the broad spectrum of a seasoned actress, "That show exposed me to several actors from different disciplines of the craft. I realized that the marriage of all these different backgrounds results in a great synergy of magic onstage," Ana continues to describe the actors she admires from other local Filipino theater companies like Tanghalang Pilipino, PETA, UP Theater, and other independent new ones and the like that she got to work during her stint with Atlantis Productions.

With her new turn as director, she used this new knowledge and inculcated it into this production. She kept her mind open for new inspirations and did not want to settle for the tried, tested, and boring formulas that worked for other productions that only made audiences yawn and not to go back to the theater. At first she even went up north to the Cordilleras because she was thinking of making the setting and costumes inspired by that region of our country. She would always bond with director Floy Quintos (another one of those constantly inspired souls), and she finally decided to set Hamlet in the chaotic, post apocalyptic era of Mad Max, the cult classic '70s nuclear holocaust flick about a man who had to fight against the world.

For Ana's version of "Hamlet," she chose another rising star of the theater Niccolo Manahan, Repertory Philippines IT boy. "Hamlet is always played by all these old actors—nothing against that but I wanted it to have a younger feel—and to highlight the vengeance theme of the role." Not only did Ana cast Nic as Hamlet, she also chose a supreme team of highly creative, innovative, and dynamic artists—Faust Peneyra for costumes, Denis Lagdameo for the set, and Jethro Joaquin to compose music just for the show. She even hired a fight choreographer, Paul Morales, for this landmark staging of one of one of Shakespeare's most famous works about revenge.

"I'm in the company of 12 boys in this cast, and we are using real weapon on stage," says Ana, the director obsessed with details. "I wanted it to be a more primal Hamlet—but still look fashionable," she says with an honest laugh. Looking at the photos of Jojit Lorenzo, you can feel the post war feel of the show—a sort of 28 Weeks Later meets Pirates of the Carribean imagery. "We made our own world, took out what we felt wasn't needed. We took out the accents and just focused on our reality."

What did you learn from this new experience? I asked my favorite stage actress slash director: "Just stripping a material to its core is something all artists should do, and we are sometimes so engrossed with the costumes and the whole imagery—set, accents, and all that we forget the core. Doing this show got me to my core."

And that is to be, Ana Bitong.

SUGGESTED MATERIALS FOR PLAY REVIEWS

DULAANG UNIBERSIDAD NG PILIPINAS

OROSMAN AT ZAFIRA. Written by Francisco Baltazar, Orosman at Zafira depicts the struggles of three kingdoms, which is bound together by war and love. Set in a period of social disarray, the play presents the contradictions of emotions and logical thinking for public welfare and for personal happiness and satisfaction. It will run from Wednesday, 13 February 2008, to Sunday, 2 March 2008, at the Wilfrido Ma Guerrero Theater, Second Floor, Palma Hall, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. Shows at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. every Saturdays and Sundays and at 7 p.m. every Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. For tickets and for more information, call 0917-6206224, 433-7840, 926-1349, or 981-8500 local 2449 or visit http://www.upd.edu.ph/~dup/.


TANGHALANG PILIPINO

KUDETA. A funeral oration for Eddie Jones sets a precarious military takeover with trigger happy squabbling factions in Mustapha Matura's farcical and fictional coup sets in Trinidad and Tobago. Kudeta explores the chimerical quality of nationhood where foreign money overpowers dreams and aspirations. Until Sunday, 3 February 2008, at the Tanghalang Huseng Batute, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Roxas Boulevard, City of Manila. Show at 3 p. m. For tickets or for more information, call 832-3661 or visit http://www.tanghalangpilipino.com/events.php?i=8&article=1&type=2.


EJ: ANG PINAGDAANANANG BUHAY NINA EVELIO JAVIER AT EDGAR JOPSON. Written by Ed Maranan and directed by Chris Millado, Tanghalang Pilipino stages the life stories of Evelio Javier, a social democract, and Edgar Jopson, a radical reformist, who were murdered during the martial law period. It will run from Friday, 15 February 2008, to Sunday, 9 March 2008, at the Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Roxas Boulevard, City of Manila. For tickets or for more information, call 832-3661 or visit http://www.tanghalangpilipino.com/events.php?i=3&article=1&type=2.


TANGHALANG ATENEO

HAKBANG SA HAKBANG. A Filipino version of William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, the play, directed and translated by Ronan Capinding, promises to entertain, as it relieves the disco dancing era, and to educate, as it draws lessons on law, justice, and morality, in a way only Shakespeare can tell. It will run until Saturday, 16 February 2008, at the Fine Arts Exhibit Hall, Gonzaga Building, Ateneo de Manila University, Loyala Heights, Quezon City. Shows at 2 p.m. every Saturdays and at 7 p.m. every Wednesdays and Saturdays. For tickets or for more information, call 426-6001 or visit http://www.tanghalangateneo.org/.


REPERTORY PHILIPPINES

STRIPPING HAMLET. William Shakespeare's immortal story of love, murder, and revenge, but without frilly costumes, lavish sets, and flowery speeches. Nothing but a post-apocalyptic wasteland inhabited by fierce warriors struggling desperately to survive. Stripping Hamlet will run until Sunday, 17 February 2008. Shows at 8 p.m. every Fridays and Sundays and at 3:30 p.m. every Saturdays and Sundays at the Rep's Globe Theater Onstage, Second Floor, Greenbelt 1, Ayala Center, Paseo de Roxas cor Legaspi Street, City of Makati. For tickets and for more information call 887-0710 or visit http://www.repertory-philippines.com/article.asp?articleid=16.

Click here to read Christine Joy De Sotto Castor's Faux Madness and The Complex World of Hamlet: A Review of Dulaang Unibersidad ng Pilipinas’s Hamlet: Redux.

Visit http://journalismandprintmedia.blogspot.com/2008/02/stripping-hamlet-preview.html to read Tim Yap's To Be or Nor To Be Ana Bitong.


PHILIPPINE EDUCATIONAL THEATER ASSOCIATION (PETA)

SKIN DEEP. Written by Vincent de Jesus and directed by Nor Domingo, Skin Deep is a story of seven ordinary persons and their frenzied search for beauty and happiness. Starring Isay Alvarez, Robert Seña, Bituin Escalante, and May Bayot-De Castro, the play will run until Sunday, 9 March 2008. Shows at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. every Friday and at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. every Saturdays and Sundays at the PETA-Phinma Theater, 5 Eymard Drive, New Manila, Quezon City. For tickets and for more information, call 725-6244 or visit http://www.petatheater.com/currentseason.html.