Online recruitment is one of today's fastest-growing industries. There has been an explosion of recruitment Web sites, with more than 33,000 career-specific sites on the Internet today, including many that focus on the Asian market. Employers are increasingly using the Internet to find employees, while more and more job seekers are using it to locate potential opportunities and land jobs.

Despite its growing use, conducting a job search on the Internet is not always as simple or as efficient as it may appear. From the employer's point of view, there has been much discussion and debate over whether online recruitment advertising is as successful as traditional forms of such advertising. From the job seeker's point of view, experts' recommendations on how to present an online rйsumй and apply for jobs online continue to change.

What should you know about presenting your rйsumй online? With the advancement of scanning, rйsumй-management systems and keyword searches on the Internet, it is often assumed that you need to develop a rйsumй for online job applications that differs from the rйsumй you have prepared to send to contacts via traditional mail. This is not necessarily true.

When prepared correctly, your well-written, well-prepared rйsumй will contain all the necessary keywords to attract attention, whether it is being read by a hiring manager, scanned and searched in a management system or indexed in an Internet site. You do not have to create a different rйsumй, you can merely alter the format to suit the individual recipient.

Just the facts. Don't waste time with rйsumй fraud by either lying about your experience or adding popular keywords to your rйsumй to attract recruiter attention. Be true to your record. You will find opportunities more closely suited to your background and goals, and avoid problems from misrepresentation.

Talk the talk. Become familiar with the language and terminology of your profession and use it to describe your experience. The correct use of industry terminology will instantly allow the potential employer to understand your background and determine a possible fit quickly and efficiently.

Timing is everything. Most large job sites list rйsumйs chronologically and recruiters often look at the most current postings. Consequently, it's a good idea to re-post your rйsumй on a regular basis, determined by the number of hits the site receives. For example, a large world-wide site such as www.monster.com receives many thousands of hits per day and you may need to re-post your rйsumй weekly, compared with the smaller, local sites where it may only be necessary to re-post your rйsumй every month or so.

Pick and choose. Be judicious and selective about the sites to which you post your rйsumй. Recruiters will not take you seriously if they discover that you are indiscriminate about the position you are seeking. If you post your rйsumй on every site and in every job bank, you will waste recruiters' time -- never mind your own.

Highlighting key points. The technical attributes of the Internet mean that you cannot use bold, underlining or bullets in a plain text document to make various parts of your rйsumй stand out. Instead, consider using the following characters as substitutes: Bullets -- use asterisks or plus signs at the beginning of lines; lines -- use a series of dashes to separate sections; bold text -- consider capital letters or use asterisks to surround the text.

Going public. Be sure to investigate and be aware of the restrictions or lack of restrictions that apply to any site where you register your rйsumй and personal information. For many of the less restricted sites, once you have posted your rйsumй it becomes a public document and outside your control. Even many of the private rйsumй databanks and traditional mailouts do not always let you dictate who can and cannot look at your rйsumй.

Hint: Where possible, post your rйsumй on those sites with strong privacy restrictions. Where it is necessary to post your rйsumй on the less restricted sites, instead of putting your home address and phone number on the rйsumй, consider renting a post office box and getting a voice-mail account during your job search. Cancel both when your search is over.