Fresh out of school and looking for work in the IT industry? Never worked in a big-name office before? Have a plethora of great ideas and creative instincts that you just know would excel you through the ranks of a company, if only they'd take a chance on you?
You're definitely not alone, or special for that matter.

The bank of IT providers currently itching for any work they can get is enormous. Freelance/contract work is getting increasingly popular with the young and inexperienced populace of Internet/New Media hopefuls.

But Why?

Is it the road-hockey-in-the-company-parking-lot instead of the corporate-hush-hush-keep-it-to-yourself atmosphere that many of the Dotcom successfuls embrace that is spawning this growing paradigm?

Personally, I don't think it's completely one way or the other with many companies these days, despite what their high-level facade might indicate. Working in a big bank isn't as constricting and unfulfilling as some might think... and working in a privately owned design firm in some swanky downtown penthouse apartment isn't all fun and games, either.
It's common knowledge that the equilibrium established between each is what allows for the healthy dynamic that keeps the wheels in motion.

But is that philosophy lost on the recent grads who entered their IT courses in college with delusions of grandeur?

What are they supposed to do after school? It seems the pattern most often occuring now is that a lot of them either work for themselves, surviving by word-of-mouth and having some loyal friends with friends, or by sucking-up their pride and working for the Man (or Woman).

How can those lacking in business communications skills successfully acquire big contracts with big companies? How can the recent grads convince the mustered, business-savvy executives that they're going to deliver?
It takes co-operation and effort from both sides to understand the nature of each other.

Is this leading up to another Dotcom boom and subsequent bust?

With all the IT service providers out there, and a lot of them being unaffiliated and inexperienced in business, is it next to impossible for them to survive on their own without taking on an MBA as a partner?
Who will be the one interfacing with that big, corporate client?
My skillset hasn't really grown over the past 5 years, but I've blown a few opportunities in the past simply because I didn't even realize they were opportunities at the time. I didn't talk the talk, no matter how much I could walk the walk.

This is a common problem facing many IT service providers out there - we're good at what we do, but our achilles heel is our lack of business fundamentals and communications skills.
We go through school with the belief that we don't ever need or want to work in a corporate environment because we want to be different, we want to be somebody - we want to share our talent(s) with the world, on our own... but is that enough to bridge the gap?

Diversify Your Skillset
Keep yourself on the move - don't stop learning new and exciting technologies and procedures. Anybody can be an expert at something - the real test of value is being an expert at a lot of things in different areas.
Growing content with abilities and resting on your lorels will get you nowhere - well, it may get you into some high-paying job in some corporate prison like many of the other under-qualified people working there who lucked into their spot.
But let's not talk about them, we don't like them and we don't want to work with people like that.

I had more to say but this post is more or less stale.