Meet online recruiting founder Bill Warren

This is the first of a series of interviews with the pioneers of Internet recruiting -- it's fitting Bill Warren is the first because he was creating job boards before most of us knew what the Internet was! Enjoy:

Bill, I first heard about you in Mexico from your partner Jose. I understand you co-founded OCC.com with him before selling OCC to Monster. What attracted you to online recruiting so long ago?

When I was VP-Industrial Relations for Admiral Division of Rockwell International we had used CompuServe and Prodigy for communicating job vacancies between different Rockwell plants and divisions. When the Internet opened up to commercial use in 1992 I realized it had great potential for recruiting and employment.

Was OCC your first business?

No. I had previously co-founded Adnet, which was later renamed E-Span, on Prodigy.

How did you catch Monster’s attention and why did you decide to sell?

Andy McKelvey, CEO of TMP in New York, called me and wanted to meet me in Indianapolis to ask my advice about his opportunity to buy The Monster Board. During that meeting he indicated that he would like to buy OCC. I contacted him about three months later indicating that I would be interested in talking with him about selling OCC. The primary reason I sold OCC at that time was because OCC was still the number one job site on the Internet and I was concerned that it would fall to number two or three --- we didn’t have the marketing dollars to compete with The Monster Board which TMP had just purchased or with CareerMosaic which was owned by Bernard Hodes Advertising Group.

Back then, you competed with espan.com, can you remember any others? Did anyone else survive?

OCC, E-Span, Monster Board, and CareerMosaic were all viable at that time. OCC was re-named Monster.com when The Monster Board was shut down in December 1998. E-Span was purchased by a couple of other firms and eventually disappeared, and CareerMosaic was purchased by CareerBuilder.

What’s your favorite part of building an organization like JobCentral? What’s next at JobCentral?

The competition of trying to build a better “mouse trap”. Next is development of a “National Labor Exchange” to replace America’s Job Bank (AJB) which is being phased-out by the U.S. Department of Labor in June 2007. Large corporations need this for OFCCP/EEOC compliance and to manage the labor force during the impending labor shortage. Small and medium companies need it to compete in the labor market.

What advice would you give a would-be entrepreneur who’s thinking of starting a job-board?

Make sure you know the market and the economics of the marketplace.

Are there any websites you visit everyday other than your own?

I tune into the Cheezhead’s blog everyday. I really think the guy understands the online recruiting industry.

What do you predict for our industry in ’07?

Continued push towards free jobs and jobs becoming a commodity and the establishment of a National Labor Exchange to replace America’s Job Bank.

Have any favorite horses?

I may be a little biased but I really like what we are doing with JobCentral.com. It will be a force in the industry in 2007.

Can you share any numbers about your growth? What tells you that you may have built another ‘better mouse trap’?

We are supported by 230 major (primarily Fortune 500) companies. The challenge is in “trying” to build a better “mouse trap”….we will know in 2007 whether or not we have succeeded. JobCentral will be the only “National Labor Exchange” ---- a site which allows state workforce agencies to upload and download jobs from their state and adjoining states ---- on the Internet when America’s Job Bank is discontinued in mid-2007.

What do you read?

My favorite reading is anything about business or business models. I want to know which business models work and which do not work and why.

What do you do for fun?

I’m a sports fanatic and also spend as much time as possible with my wife and our seven granddaughters.

Thanks for your time Bill, it's been a pleasure!

More about Bill Warren

Bill, a former corporate human resource executive with Rockwell International, is widely recognized as the founder of online recruiting. He is currently Executive Director of DirectEmployers Association, a non-profit consortium of leading U.S. companies.

DirectEmployers Association services include the DirectEmployers.com employment search engine, and JobCentral National Labor Exchange. In August, 1992, Warren founded Online Career Center (OCC), the first employment site on the Internet. He remained president of OCC after it was sold to TMP Worldwide (now Monster Worldwide) in December 1995. OCC was renamed Monster.com and he was named president of the expanded organization when The Monster Board was discontinued in December 1998.

Warren was awarded the 1997 Employment Management Association’s prestigious Pericles Pro Meritus Award, an honor presented by EMA in recognition of being the founder of online recruiting on the Internet. He is a graduate of Indiana University and a three-year U.S. Army veteran.

innovations: Founder of online recruiting on the Internet

little known facts:

1. I had a twenty-year human resource career before starting Online Career Center (OCC).
2. I was also a co-founder of E-Span which was started in my basement as “Adnet”.
3. At different times, E-Span, OCC and Monster all had the same Indianapolis telephone number (317-293-6499) because I played a role in starting all of them.
4. I was an employment consultant to Japanese companies (Nissan and Denso) starting operations in the U.S. in the early 1980’s.
5. In 1966 I played baseball against Satchel Paige.

visit his blog or website