I became a content manager by accident. Or rather, I thought that I would be an HTML coder, but inside the bank where I work, there isn't much call to write HTML by hand. It turns out that running intranet sites is something that's in demand in this company, and a lot of it involves formatting, sorting, describing, naming, and serving content written by subject matter experts.

My training in the US Navy in the field of stock control was probably a big help. It turns out that the skills that you need in classifying, storing, and dispensing objects are very similar to the skills you need when managing documents, images, and other files. I also spent a lot of time as a kid doing research in the local library, and I was familiar with the basics of the Dewey Decimal System. The ideas involved are very useful for content management work.

It's probably a good idea to have a naturally helpful personality. This will allow you to be patient enough to really listen to the needs of the people who use your documents. It doesn't make sense to store documents if no one else can use your system to find what they need! I find it helpful to have some interviewing and problem-solving skills, and it helps to have some language skills.