Just finished interviewing with the VP for boss's (whose leaving) job. He and I clicked and he liked what I brought to the table. It wasn't my mad IT skills - they are good. It wasn't my ability to manage and lead teams successfully - I am really freakin' able. It was simply because I reconginzed that the key to the job was improving the relationship with the customer. Some condiser this ass kissing - I see it as recognition that if someone is paying my company for a service, than I need to be grateful to that person and make sure they are happy.

So class, the lesson for today is, that yes the customer still matters, and an in era where budgets are tight and IT is competing for funding, you need to make sure your client likes you and feels good. It's actually more important than the work product itself.

How do you learn such skills? Simply work retail, wait tables, work at a theme park, answer the help desk phone, or do something equally customer focued where for 8 hours a day you have to deal with people who feel they are owed something because they've given you money. After a year of this, you will learn how to make a customer happy, how to say no to someone and still make them feel good, how to paste a smile on your face and use your really nice voice while inside you're head you're thinking FUCK YOU.

I got the job because I know how to smile and think FUCK YOU!