2) Could you tell us how you went from a fan to an employee of BioWare? What are your key qualities that got you hired do you think?

I am not sure about that one, I guess I fit the job description quite well :) During the last year I had created a substantial number of different scripts for NWN, and one of them even made it into Rob Bartel's Witch's Wake Module. Around October of last year, BioWare published the job opening for a technical designer position on their website (it is still there btw) and I decided to write a small demo module and to apply for the job. Several telephone interviews later, in February, they invited me to visit them in Edmonton for a personal interview and a test... Two months later I started my new job.
I guess my experience with the toolset/game did help a bit as well as my "experience" with their earlier games / CRPGs in general.