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Before Maria Schnabel, director of Latino public relations for Cingular Wireless, began her rewarding career in the corporate world, she was a young, floundering freelance writer just out of journalism school at San Diego State. Her unpaid student internship at the Los Angeles Times garnered her experience working on interesting stories. But when she realized she was dissatisfied with the industry, she had a revelation.

London - If you were among the billion or so viewers watching the soccer World Cup final on Sunday, chances are you were struck more by the ignominious end to Frenchman Zinedine Zidane’s career rather than the game itself.

In the 110th minute of France’s defeat by Italy, Zidane, the balding Marseille-born genius commonly held up as the greatest soccer player of his generation, committed a terrible faux pas. After earlier becoming one of only four players to achieve the feat of scoring in two different World Cup final matches–he scored twice in the 1998 World Cup final–"Zizou" dropped his head and charged at Italy’s Marco Materazzi like a fighting bull after the two players exchanged words on the field.

Want to make six figures? You’re probably thinking you’ve got to work on Wall Street, a law firm or have gone through years of medical school to earn that kind of a salary. While all that helps, we found some surprising jobs that pay $100,000 or more. Even for those without an advanced degree, there are ways to hustle for a big paycheck.

Time-tested skills are still in demand. If, for example, you think typists are as outmoded as typewriters, you’d be wrong. A skilled typist who’s willing to train intensely to get up to about 200 a minute will qualify to be a court reporter– a highly specialized skill always in demand.