I graduated with a BA in Comp Sci and didn't want to become a full-time programmer. I switched directions and went to work for a big ad agency, then as an in-house marketer/SEO for a Fortune 500 company. In my opinion, the marketing skills required for SEO are easier to learn on the job than the programming/technical knowledge necessary to diagnose site issues.

Many of the folks I've worked with are Marketing or Business Administration majors (or MBA's) and most have agreed that the textbook marketing knowledge is not sufficient for real-world application.

If I had to do it all over again knowing I would end up as an SEO consultant, I would have still pursued the Comp Sci degree but added in more writing, sociology, and psychology courses. The more you understand communications and people, the more successful you will be at SEO.

I graduated with a Business Information Systems degree. Basically it's a Business Admin degree with with programming and systems analysis focus. I also took HTML/JS/CSS courses to fill up some extra credits I needed.

I came out of college being very tech and business savvy, but you still need real world experience and application to be a great SEMarketer. You also have to understand research and be able to learn quickly. Many of us are assigned to projects or customers that we know nothing about. Learning and writing about different topics quickly, yet thoroughly is not a talent that anyone can pick up at a college course. Also, targeting customers in multiple different markets requires a deep understanding of behaviors and patterns, while keeping up with current trends and strategies in the SEO world.

I'd say we are a group of very talented people. :)

Surely all of those are relevant.

I graduated with a BSc Honours degree in Electronic Commerce and a Masters Degree in Electronic Commerce, but that is beside the point.

You do not need a degree to do SEO/SEM.

I do not want for people who have not had the privilege the time or the opportunity to do a degree to think that they will not make good SEMs.

Real world experience is important also.

In my Rob Abdul's opinion (currently number 1 in Google for the term "eBusiness Specialist") you need to be good at:

1. Being very patience
2. Testing any hypothesis you have
3. Setting up fair and unbiased experiments
4. Analysing results
5. Implementing changes based on your results
6. Starting at No. 1 again

A degree will help, but not essential!

Thanks for all the replies, everyone. I'm the guy who originally posted the question over on the HighRankings forum.

I'm 33 years old, and just returning to college to finish the degree I started almost 15 years ago. The degree is important to me on a personal level, no matter what.

I've been leaning towards what Piosenka mentioned. My university offers a similar program, kind of a mix of business and technology. I can probably fill in the gaps with CSS/JS/HTML classes and be more prepared.

Why not sign up for a course at the Sempo Institute (http://www.sempoinstitute.com)? I'm sure they will get you up to speed quickly.