How much is your degree worth?

A good percentage of the people I hear from and work with have technology backgrounds - including degrees in information technology of one kind or another.  Here's an interesting survey being done this week by the innovative people over at TechRepublic for all of you who have pursued technology as an academic endeavor (and for managers and recruiters who hire people for IT positions!)  The anonymous results will be the basis for a special report on IT/IS undergrad programs and will include the importance of that piece of paper vs. hands-on work experience.  

(HINT: All of you who were at my presentation yesterday in Chicago should be interested in this!)

Are you finding what you're looking for?

Sometimes we really don't know what we're looking for. But we've got an idea. And we've got the right direction. Even when we get the results, we still have to be satisfied that we're headed in the right direction and we can try some further refinements. George Will used to quip, "Perfection is the enemy of the good," but it helps to keep pursuing it... relentlessly.

If I were putting together a survey about supporters of a presidential candidate, I wouldn't expect to find a correlation with pet ownership. But if you throw it in the mix and there's a connection, it's something to follow up on. What is it about pet owners anyway? Does this make sense, now that you think about it? What about cat owners vs. dog owners?

Admittedly, surveys can be quirky and the results can be subjective, but it can be interesting to see what direction the results take you. What helps you connect the dots with your customers? Do you ever let people on your team take a (more) random shot to try to uncover something totally unexpected?

Broad Shoulders and Clean Hands

Recruiters: Another reason to choose Chicago for your next job fair -- you're going to be shaking a lot of hands. On a good day you may shake hands with hundreds of people. Don't give it a second thought... as long as you're in the second city, which came in first in a new survey by Harris Interactive on personal hygiene, specifically hand-washing habits.