But if you really have a hankering to experiment with Web-based learning, then Hungry Minds (www.hungryminds.com) is a great place to start. This enormous directory of educational offerings makes it easy for you to find and register for courses in both the online and offline worlds. Courses range from how to give a better presentation to the basics of marketing. The site also offers a variety of useful study tools, such as the Universal Notebook, which lets you keep all of your course notes in a central place. And the site's "E-Book" feature allows you to purchase only those chapters that you need for a particular course, rather than having to fork over money for an entire book.

While Hungry Minds focuses mainly on distance learning, EduPoint.com (www.edupoint.com) uses virtual tools to guide people to real-world education. It connects idea-hungry professionals with courses offered by brick-and-mortar institutions. The site, which lists about 500,000 courses, makes it easy for users to find the courses that are most relevant to their careers and to enroll in them -- without having to spend hours thumbing through catalogs or standing in line at the registrar's office.

Of course, there's more to learning than spending weeks or months slogging through in-depth courses on mission-critical topics, whether at a training center or on the Web. Youachieve.com (www.youachieve.com) is designed to help you get a little better at a lot of things -- quickly. The site offers 326 online learning sessions created by more than 180 gurus. Topics range from team building, to presentation techniques, to stress management. The material comes in three formats: 60-minute workshops, 20-minute clinics, and 5-minute articles. (Some subjects aren't available in all three formats.) But to save time on learning, you'll have to spend some money: A one-year subscription to the entire youachieve.com library costs $399.

Gina Imperato (gimperato@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company associate editor. She still doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up.

Action Item: Career Crossing

Does your career make you feel as if you're trying to get across a busy intersection? Then "CareerXRoads 2000" (MMC Group, 2000), by HR veterans Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler, will help you get to the other side. The book provides a directory of more than 500 Web sites relating to jobs, résumés, and career management. And, since the Web keeps changing, the authors have created a free email update service.

Coordinates: $26.95. CareerXRoads 2000, www.careerxroads.com

Sidebar: Cyber Coach

Even world-class athletes can't reach peak performance without a great coach. So it's no surprise that people who are trying to reach peak performance in their careers will seek the advice of career coaches. Thanks to the Web, getting career advice has never been faster or easier.

Judy Feld, 54, is a master certified coach and a certified mentor coach who offers advice to executives and entrepreneurs around the world. She works in a nice office in Dallas, but she provides almost all of her advice remotely -- by phone or via email. In an interview, she spoke about the virtues of cyber-coaching.

More is better. "Email helps us move the advice-giving process so much faster. Using email, I've been able to review résumés, cover letters, even outlines of talking points for an interview. We can also do certain assessments -- of styles, talents, and personality tests -- by email." Routines matter too. "The power of email is that it allows you to communicate quickly. But it's crucial to have scheduled interactions as well. You can hear a lot in someone's voice."

Working by email takes work. "There aren't many coaches who do cyber-coaching. It takes a client who doesn't freeze in front of the keyboard. It's not easy to give nuanced thoughts. Cyber-coaching may take more time than conventional approaches."

Coordinates: Judy Feld, judy@coachnet.com; CoachU, www.coachu.com; International Coach Federation (www.coachfederation.org)

Sidebar: Career Fitness

For most individuals, the opportunity to invent a career path feels liberating and exciting. For companies, the same phenomenon presents a daunting challenge: How do we attract the best talent when so many talented people are moving in different directions?

Dave Aker, senior VP of worldwide human resources at Unisys Corp., says that companies should address the battle for talent by looking inside first: "You've got to keep the people you have, and develop them, so that you evolve your workforce over time."