Keep Your Job by Changing It

The New York Times debuted their redesigned Web site this week, and the editor notes the staff have been working on this project for more than a year. The new site promises improved navigation, more multimedia, more reader voice and more personalization. What's interesting to me are not the specific design changes but what these changes signify for how this bellwether of print journalism sees its role on the Web. It means the staff are redesigning, even reinventing, their own work.

I've been a print journalist for much of my career. I know virtually all print publications say they value reader input. But prior to the Web, print publications usually didn't get much direct feedback from readers, and when they did, it often didn't pass editorial muster. The Web changed all that.

Today, direct communication from site visitors is a given, and more and more individuals are taking publishing into their own hands via message boards, blogs -- even personal photos and video clips. Some of the most popular Web sites (apart from search engines) are collections of user-created content -- the Flickrs, MySpaces, Facebooks, LinkedIns and, yes, Monsters of the world.

At Monster, we are always thinking about how we can better serve job seekers and the companies who employ them. We get a lot of feedback via email or on our message boards on how we're doing. Working on the Web means always thinking about what information visitors need and the best way to present it. It also means we're constantly redesigning our work -- what we do and how we do it -- and it's the part of my job I enjoy the most.

In the face of the continuing troubles at Detroit's automakers, I can't help thinking there's a lesson here: If you don't keep redesigning your work, someone else will do it for you. And you may no longer be in the picture or part of the result.

Here are a few resources on how to keep your job by changing it:

• "Are You Engaged?"
• "Career Change and the Seasoned Worker"
• "Create Your Own Opportunities"
• "Excite Your Career by Changing Your Circumstances"
• "Give Your Job a Chance Before You Split"

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