Good jobs come and go quickly. Great jobs come and go at warp speed. Recruiters are under intense pressure to find the talented people their organizations need and get them hired —  fast. Therefore, one of the most important strategies you can use for dealing with today’s job market is to be “interview ready” all of the time.

What does that mean? Make sure that you are always prepared for that first contact with an employer, whether it is a telephone call or an e-mail message. And make sure that you aren’t delayed by having to throw together a resume. There’s no hemming and hawing while you try to remember what’s going on in your industry. And, there’s no embarrassed silence while you try to cover up the gaps you’ve let emerge in your professional knowledge.

Look at it this way: Corporate recruiters have thousands of applicants sending in their resumes every day for openings with their employers. From their perspective, they have the pick of the crop, and they believe they can now be more selective than ever. For your part, this situation guarantees that the competition for any job will be intense, and the competition for the best jobs will be off the charts.

How will recruiters sort winners from losers? They’ll look for candidates who have state-of-the-art skills and are up-to-date in their industry and the business world. In addition, recruiters will expect candidates to demonstrate professional knowledge and business awareness from the very first nanosecond of the contact. That’s the definition of being prepared in today’s job market.

I know that’s a big challenge; sure, you have other things to do. But, continuous preparation is the single most important step you can take to set yourself apart from others job seekers. How can you achieve such unflagging readiness? That’s where the Internet comes in. It offers a myriad of ways to help you get ready and stay ready for whatever opportunities may come along — conveniently. And, with the best return on your investment of time and effort.

Here are some suggestions to get you started:

Take college courses and training programs online. E-Learning or online education has expanded dramatically in the last five years. Today, more than 2,000 institutions of higher education, ranging from Alaska Pacific University to Cornell University and Duke University, offer online instruction. You can earn an associates, bachelor’s or graduate degree in a wide range of subjects as well as certification and continuing education credits.

Read the journals published by your professional association. Joining the national association in your field enables you to tap into the wealth of news and information. Increasingly, you can receive and/or access these organization’s journals and magazines on the Internet, saving you time and ensuring that your awareness of issues and trends is up-to-the-minute.

Check the news feeds at business and other media sites. Use the major television and cable networks (e.g., CNN, MSNBC), business publications (e.g., Bloomberg Financial News, The Wall Street Journal), newspapers, and your Internet service provider. The key here is to develop a routine. Find the sources (yes, you should use more than one) that provide you with the most interesting and useful information, visit them daily, and have them send the information to you via e-mail, RSS feed or podcast.

Study the press releases of major employers in your industry. Make sure you know which organizations and individuals are the key players and what they’re up to. Certainly, you can visit specific corporate sites and find a wealth of information. To gain a broader perspective, use a browser (e.g., Google, Yahoo!) to see what business analysts, columnists and others in the media are saying about the organizations. However, evaluate the author before reading a specific article or document. Professional journalists must adhere to established standards of accuracy and fairness, but unfortunately, not everyone writing on the Web is a professional journalist.

Dream jobs don’t stay open for long, so it’s important that you are always “interview ready.” That’s tough to do in today’s busy world, but the Internet can help. It brings news, information and important developmental opportunities right to your desktop, wherever that may be. Take advantage of these resources, and you’ll ensure that every first impression you make with a recruiter is a good one.