The Webmaster/Office Assistant – A Death of a Profession
I’ve been watching for this day for sometime now; be prepared as the role of the web designer is going to change as corporate culture is reshaped. The growing concern we should all be aware of is the slow demise of the web designer and its roles’ future and inevitable merger with the front-desk. The average secretary (a.k.a. office assistant/administrator) in the US is expected to have at least a bachelor’s degree, be computer literate and extremely proficient with Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Tomorrow’s (or today’s as it seems) secretary is going to be demanded to take those technical skills to the next level.
Most typical companies for a long-time have had little respect for “creative” – primarily it’s a lack of understanding and questionable necessity. I am sure many of you have seen the “webmaster” job description before; a multi-hat wearing design, marketing, hosting, maintenance, tracking, programming guru who needs to be amazing at $30,000 a year.
This morning I came across a job posting in Washington DC to fill the following role:
We are a small test prep company located in Washington DC looking to hire a part time webmaster/office administrator.
Responsibilities:
Manage our current websites
Manage our online marketing campaigns
Communicate with clients via chat/email/phone
Process and ship orders
Maintain inventory
Handle day to day office chores
To qualify candidates must posses:
Excessive internet and design experience including HTML, Flash, Photoshop, MS Office.
Familiarity with online marketing strategies (search engine optimization, ranking, etc)
Good organization skills
Good communication skills
Hours of work:
12:00-5:00 PM Weekdays (Saturdays Optional)
At every company I’ve ever worked for, there have been at least five different people staffed full-time to fill the one part-time position previously mentioned. I suppose there are two trains of thought here: The first being a big pat-on-the-back for saving well over $250,000.00 in salaries and fully maximizing the work-load of one person (part-time with no benefits) — The second is completely laughable to the point of sadness. You wonder, is this company unrealistically hiring or are web designer currently over valued?
I personally believe we have some time before the front-desk fully encapsulates in-house design studios; however, I do acknowledge it is inevitable (to a degree). There was a time when PowerPoint was king – when million dollar proposals depended on well designed presentations. The importance is still there — it is the responsibility that has changed. In today’s atmosphere the same person who staffs the conference room with hot coffee and fresh muffins is designing the presentation being shown in that same conference room.
As CMS’ become more robust, design templates become more common place and as the evolution of ‘one click publishing’ enhances – the future of the web designer isn’t non-exist, but the pool will get much smaller and extremely competitive.
- July 5th, 2006
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History seems to repeat itself — and it will probably continue to.
Print has been down the same path, whereas management says, “let’s send our secretary to quark classes.”
Little do they know… good design doesn’t come from software and with the web: well-designed user experience doesn’t happen overnight!
Nick, good point! I guess I see a lot of the production side of things being taken away from the role of the traditional web designer in the near future. “FTP” will become as common-place a term in the office as “Xerox”.