But the 22-year-old Chicago native's business savvy and entrepreneurial know-how -- he built and operates a Web site that sells imported herbal supplements -- are what would likely set him apart from the pack and bode well for his career.

That's the conclusion of a report released last week by the Society for Information Management, a Chicago-based organization for IT executives. SIM's survey, based on interviews last year with 96 IT managers at companies of all sizes, found that business skills account for half of the top 10 attributes IT managers say they will need from in-house staffers over the next three years. The other five preferred skills include a mix of project management and technical talents, though the latter, because they are client-facing, also require some business skills.

"This is a long-standing issue," said Kate Kaiser, an associate professor of IT at Marquette University in Milwaukee and the report's primary author. "But it's now more important than ever to have business skills. Companies are more aware than ever [about] what IT can do for them."

In contrast to the hiring freezes that graduates faced after the dot-com crash, the overall IT workforce is expected to remain stable until at least 2008, the report found.

As some jobs -- especially technical ones in larger organizations -- continue to be outsourced, IT positions emphasizing business and management skills, such as business process re-engineering or project planning, are likely to be retained or created, according to the report.