You want to increase your chances of being noticed...certainly. However, flooding the market with your resume is NOT the answer. Wallpapering the Internet with your credentials will typically make you look desperate. It also creates the impression that you are open to anything and aren't clear on what exactly you want. Plus, you will also have to deal with the headache of mismatched solicitations and referral confusion that come along with this. In other words..."can't help, might hurt".

Here are a few general pieces of advice on how to look at the most common resume marketing channels:

Job boards: Be picky and stick to just a few boards that you know to be effective. Niche boards are always best. If you register on everything, companies will see your profile too many times. I know...this should be a good thing right? But it isn't because you might look like your throwing your resume everywhere in an act of desperation.

Placement Agencies: Moderation is key. Don’t work with too many agencies. Mostly because they will ultimately all be trying to send you to the same companies. This will inevitably end up with an overlap of referrals causing a problem over who should get the agency fee for presenting you. This happens a lot actually. And when it does, managers typically wash their hands of these candidates because they don't want to deal with the headache. Simply pick one or two really good agencies and stick with them. There are also many agencies out there who do nothing more then spam resumes out to companies all day in hopes that they will get a call back. So set up a rule whereby the agency cannot send your resume anywhere without prior consent.

Mass-distribution services: There are websites out there that automatically distribute your resume to 100's (even 1000's) of potential employers and /or agencies. This will be a complete nuisance to your search if you ever intend on leveraging other people or tools to assist you since once your resume gets date stamped by HR, no 3rd parties (Agencies, Employee Referrals) can be recognized. That means your agency won't get paid, the employee referral won't get paid, etc.. Plus, managers generally don't open these unsolicited resumes anyway due to security concerns and general time management. And oh yeah..let's not forget that you'll get slammed with inquiries from HR people and recruiters on positions you're not interested in. This is the ultimate machine gun approach and it will hurt a lot more then it ever helps.

Referrals: Be wise when letting your friend forward your resume along to a Hiring Manager within their company. Read up on my last post regarding this. Although this will be a much more cost effective for the employer to get your resume this way, it may not be most effective for you. Unless the referrer plans on following up to get you an actual interview and represent you fully throughout the process, you’re always better off going through an agency since they will facilitate and mange the entire process for you. However, if what you are looking for is just a quick intro, this is fine (providing you are willing to conduct the follow up yourself). You can't count on your friend to bug their coworker or boss about meeting/ hiring you. I also hate to say this, but your friend may not have the best reputation and you'll want to make sure that a generous offer to help doesn't end up backfiring on you.

Trying to increase your chances of getting hired is fine. Just make sure you don't go completely overboard. Choose the resume marketing channels that work or suffer making the wrong impression.