When the Internet was young, Monster.com, a pioneering online job recruitment firm, rocked the way people look for work. Now, Monster itself has hit a rocky patch, marked by the resignation of three top officers, a major security breach and the rise of new competitors, including Craigslist. According to Wharton faculty and analysts, Monster is confronting the “middle age” that all veteran firms of the Internet’s early days must face. The company remains a force in employment advertising, they say, but as it settles into maturity, Monster must find new ways to protect its established markets and expand overseas. Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli says that Monster is a survivor in the online job placement world it helped invent. “They were the biggest and then there was a host of competitors. Now, the industry has consolidated and Monster is one of the last big players in the space. The broader story is, ‘How does the next wave look at the original Internet companies?’ I don’t think we know yet.…