Q&A: Atrion's Tim Hebert On Closing The IT Skills Gap

What insights did you gain from the event? (Part 1)

Number one is that there is a stigma that exists within the IT world about the kind of talent we need to hire. I think that people are still very fixated on degrees and pedigree more so than they probably should be, instead of looking at the skills and character. At one point [during the day, attendees] were talking about the challenges they have placing workers [for entry-level positions] that have more [qualifications] than a person coming out of a four-year school. But they're not getting hired because they don’t have a four-year degree.

If you think about it, these people wouldn't have hired the Bill Gateses and Steve Jobses of the world [two tech giants who didn't finish college], the people that don’t necessarily have that normal, traditional background to work for them.