Editor's Note: This article is adapted by permission from NetWords, a quarterly publication of Exec-U-Net, a national networking membership organization for executives based in Norwalk, Conn.

Most public employment resources on the Internet are geared to entry- and mid-level workers. So where does that leave you? Are there Internet job-search and career advancement resources that can help senior-level managers and executives?

Unfortunately, the best response to this question is probably, "It depends." Whether the Internet can help you depends on what you’re trying to do.

The Internet can be used to accomplish five employment-related functions: research, resume distribution, job searching, networking and personal development.

In these areas, the Internet offers definite advantages to entry- and mid-level workers. However, its ability to help executives is mixed. For example, it can be a valuable research tool for job seekers at all levels. But while it makes resume distribution much more efficient for those seeking a first job, a skilled technical position or a new or better job in the same industry, it isn’t an effective resume distribution tool for executives. Here’s why.

1. Traditional executive recruiters have been slow to accept the Internet.

The online employment industry has its roots in print classified ads, not in the office suites of headhunters. It began as "job boards and resume banks" for workers in information technology fields and has migrated into other fields, such as finance and accounting, sales and marketing and engineering, and industries including health care, transportation and insurance. In almost every case, the focus of these new ventures has been employee recruitment, not executive search.

2. The executive market is relatively small.

The prevailing economic model for the online employment industry, at least until now, has been a small margin on a big number. Lots of job postings and foot traffic by job seekers hiking in from the information superhighway generate the high volume of transactions. At senior levels, there simply are too few available positions and, until recently, too few executives online, to make the Internet a viable business.

Although the situation is changing, employment resources on the Internet are a mixed bag for executives. The degree of usefulness depends on what you want to do. Most executives are best served when they focus on performing online activities that will provide the greatest return on their investment in time, energy and money.

The majority of executives surveyed by Exec-U-Net use the Internet for research. They can collect information about their industry, potential employers, market conditions, new product and service developments and business leaders. As with any endeavor, online researching requires a new set of skills. These skills have more to do with logical thinking and familiarity with your subject than with computer savvy.

For example, if you want to acquire information about leading companies in your industry, you can visit their corporate web sites or access any of several online business research centers. To visit a company’s web site, find its internet address or uniform resource locator (URL). URLs are often cited in sales literature, annual reports or recruitment ads. You also enter the company’s name in the search feature of an Internet directory or search engine. While you may find more than you planned, one "match" will likely provide the company’s Web address and a link or electronic connection to take you there.

Another easy way to find information on certain companies is by visiting an online business research center. At Hoover’s Online, you can conduct research on companies at no charge and acquire their URL, operating locations, officers’ names, sales results and more. Additional information is available for a fee. Companies Online offers free information on 100,000 public and private companies, including their annual sales, workforce size, trade names and corporate structure. You also can visit the Electronic Data Gathering and Retrieval (EDGAR) database of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to review company SEC filings, at no charge.

The Internet is useful for keeping abreast of developments in your industry and conducting research on key executives, new product introductions, company expansions and entries into new markets. Probably the best sources of this information are web sites managed by industry or professional groups, periodicals and associations. If you don’t know the URL for your trade or professional group, check out the more than 1,000 sites listed in an online directory at the Virtual Community of Associations.

The Internet is particularly rich in developmental activities for senior-level managers and executives. Moreover, many of these resources can be provided electronically so you can take advantage of them whenever you want. Some are free, while others charge hefty prices.

One of the more unusual development services for executives online is the Board of Directors Resource Center. This site helps executives acquire the board of directors’ experience that can be an important part of their career. The service is managed by Stybel-Peabody Associates, a Boston career transition and search company, which will review your resume and, if appropriate, post your credentials in a database used by pre-IPO companies searching for board members. The service is free.

Continuing education is an important element in executive development, and the Internet is increasingly the most efficient way to wedge it into your workday. Indeed, the Internet is a medium for "learning-on-the-run." By using its distance-learning resources, executives can acquire new skills and pursue advanced degrees, without spending a lot of time on campus or away from day-to-day job requirements.

For example, you can get a Ph.D. in economics from the University of London, an M.B.A. from Duke University or a masters in liberal arts from Skidmore College, all over the Net. There’s no central internet directory of these programs, so to save time, review one or more print guides to find a suitable program. These include "The Best Distance Learning Graduate Schools" (Princeton Review, 1998) by Vicky Phillips and Cindy Yager and "Peterson’s Guide to Distance Learning Programs" (Petersons Guides, 1998).

A wide spectrum of nondegree programs are available online, although they’re more difficult to find. Without a print or electronic directory, you’ll have to use a search engine to find specific programs. For example, by searching on Yahoo!, you can find a potpourri of career counseling, coaching and skill-building services. You might find Executive Knowledge Works, a company which offers custom-designed educational programs for individuals and management teams. Or you may find Mary Lou Spann, a Ph.D. in psychology who has more than 20 years of experience coaching senior executives in the manufacturing, service and health care industries.

There are many reputable vendors offering fine executive-development products and services online. However, other vendors are less reputable, so check out any product or service before purchasing.

Most employment web sites claim to offer executive-level opportunities. However, few have enough such jobs to justify a visit. Hence, the Internet is more like an alleyway than a superhighway when it comes to executive job searchers.

Nevertheless, a handful of sites are worth knowing about, though with certain caveats. Note that some of these sites are affiliated with a print publication, so the positions they offer are available to the general public, which can increase competition for them. Similarly, some sites serve a particular industry or occupational field, which clearly narrows their applicability. Here are a few examples.

The careers site at the interactive edition of The Wall Street Journal (careerjournal.com), lists executive-level positions in virtually all industries and markets. This site includes jobs published in the print edition of the Journal as well as unique job postings. Unlike the interactive edition, the careers site is open to the public and free.

Careerjournal.com has an exclusive collaboration with Korn/Ferry International, a New York-based search firm, for executives in the $75,000 to $150,000 salary range. This site, Futurestep, requires executives to complete an online assessment that creates a confidential profile stored in the Korn/Ferry database. The company then matches these profiles with its search assignments. This is, at best, a passive approach to job hunting, as you can’t view the company’s search assignments or determine how many are open.

• The web site of CIO magazine. For information technology executives, this site is a good source of opportunities at the CIO, vice president and director level.

• The Chronicle of Higher Education. This public web site is a good source of executive-level positions in academia.

Even the most well known online job banks, including CareerBuilder, Monster Board and Career Magazine, offer only modest numbers of opportunities for senior management and executive-level job seekers. As a consequence, you should limit your investment of time in searching their databases. Focus, instead, on the handful of sites which specialize in upper-echelon job search.

Put your resume in front of tens of thousands of local, regional, national and international employers, all at the click of a button. Sounds appealing, and the Internet makes it possible. You can post your resume in a database where it can be viewed by the general public (e.g., HeadHunter.NET or Career Magazine) or by any employer paying a fee for access (e.g., CareerMosaic, CareerWeb).

In an era when time is short and good jobs are fleeting, online resume distribution seems like a wonderful advantage. It can reduce mail costs and time and expand your visibility. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that there are real dangers in distributing a resume online, particularly for executives. When you post a resume on the Internet, there’s no confidentiality and no going back. Once your resume is in a public resume database on a recruitment web site, it’s available to anyone who has access to the Internet. This may be less troubling to active job hunters, but it’s obviously a problem for those still employed and just "window shopping" or testing their marketability.

You may also suffer potentially devastating residual effects because once your resume is posted, you lose control over the document. It can and will be copied countless times by software applications used by other such sites to increase their own resume count or to find prospective candidates for clients. You’ll never know which web sites made the copies or which organizations received it. As a result, it’s impossible to take yourself off the market, even after you’ve secured a new position. Your resume will always be out in cyberspace, getting older and more out of date and setting you up for embarrassment if your current employer stumbles across it while recruiting on the Net.

Nevertheless, there are two instances where you can and should use the Internet for resume distribution. The first is to respond directly to an employer (not a search firm) with an opening who has asked for credentials to be submitted online. The second is when networking by e-mail and enclosing a copy of your resume in the body of your message. In both cases, you’re sending your resume in a private communication and it isn’t likely to be posted publicly online.

Networking has always been important to career success, but doing it the old fashioned way -- at association meetings, social events and on business trips -- can be time consuming and difficult. Today, the Internet makes networking far more efficient. It allows you to stay in touch with friends and colleagues worldwide, at any time of day, without disrupting your schedule or taking much time and effort.

The Internet even offers web sites that can help you stay current on your contacts’ street addresses and telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. If you don’t know the new address of a former co-worker, visit WhoWhere or Four11 to track them down.

Another way to stay in touch is by participating in a newsgroup. Newsgroups are e-mail bulletin boards where participants can discuss professional and other topics of mutual interest. There are more than 40,000 active newsgroups, so the array of subjects is broad and diverse. To locate an active newsgroup dealing with a specific subject of interest to you, use an online newsgroup directory, such as DejaNews or Sparklist. You’ll find groups discussing everything from the arts to taxes.

Finally, the Internet supports a vast number of virtual communities where you can interact with people who share your interests and beliefs. These range from professional societies and trade groups, which sponsor chats or online discussion forums for members, to specialized affinity groups.