I don't like the poll questions.

I have 2 graduate degrees, neither in technology fields.

If I selected "Never went to college for IT" then it might be taken to indicate that I never went to college at all.

Yeah it was suppose to imply that you went to college for something other that IT, I just worded it wrong.

it also doesn't matter if you have a degree or not, which was kind of the point of this poll.

Just as another point of reference, I recently hired someone who is working out really well who has a business degree (BA). He's in school for IT, but he's not learning anything useful there other than Java and some other basics.

One of the things that separates the geeks destined to forever do specific IT tasks from the people who would move ahead and/or be allowed to talk to normal humans is the ability to understand business and customer needs, more so than understanding tech. Whether you learn it in school or on the job, that's a much rarer skill than tech. I interview lots of people I'd never hire because all they can do is the one tech job, not interact with people or understand business.

Great point. Whenever I have to sell myself in an interview process I always mention I like to take in user feed back. A lot of tech people have the whole "Mooooove" attitude with them. like the SNL skit.

I think user feed back is important I also think people skills are important. That is why on my contract jobs I always make good impressions just incase I may need a job in the future. It is always good to help people because they will remember (usually) what you did for them.

One thing to add to your interview skill would be an understanding of business drivers: ROI, TCO, opportunity cost, etc. Not that you should toss trendy acronyms at them, but since IT tends to fall under financial guys it helps to know what they think about all day. And I don't know how many times I've seen a tech guy try to sell technology because it's the latest, or the best, or really cool, or similar nonsensical reasons. What's the ROI? You can't get funding without ROI.