The Difference Between Resume Distribution and Resume Posting Services
by Rita Fisher

Resume Distribution Services
There are many resume distribution services on the Internet today. Basically, the way they work is that you pay a certain amount of money to them, anywhere from $30 to $200, and the resume distribution service will distribute your resume to their database of recruiters and employers.

Resume distribution services will let you choose your industry, geography, salary level and position title and based on these employment specifications, they will e-mail or fax your resume to those recruiters and / or employers who match your employment specifications.

The main thing to remember here is to TARGET your resume to only those recruiters and employers who match your employment specifications. You don't want your resume to be sent out to everyone in the resume distribution service's database because that will not help your job search and you will end up paying more.

Resume Posting Services
Have you ever visited CareerBuilder.com or Monster.com? I'm sure you have. These are called job search sites or job board sites. These are the sites where you can post your resume for free. You can also search for job openings on these sites.

Job search sites have clearly explained instructions on how you can post your resume to them. The reason for posting your resume to these sites is because that is how recruiters and potential employers will find you.

Two important items to remember when posting to job search sites:

1. You have to include industry keywords in your resume in order to be picked up by recruiters or employers. What are keywords? For example, if you are a Pharmaceutical Sales Representative, your keywords might be "mood stabilizing drugs," "Prozac," "Zoloft," "Paxil" etc. Just build these into your job descriptions and job accomplishments.

The reason why you want to include keywords in your resume is because both recruiters and employers will be searching for potential candidates by typing in certain keywords. (They are looking for someone with the kinds of experiences your keywords convey).

2. The other important item to remember when posting to job search sites is that it is not an "active" way of looking for work.

Only a fraction of all job seekers find employment via posting their resumes to job search sites. Job search sites have thousands if not millions of resumes in their databases so the likelihood of your resume popping up in front of a recruiter or an employer is very slim.

After briefly reviewing both the resume distribution and resume posting services, my professional recommendation is to use the first one: the resume distribution. When you have a resume distribution service distributing your resume, it will be a TARGETED distribution, not a blind action in job search process (like the resume posting). To find resume distribution services, just go to google.com and put "resume distribution service" into the search engine. Good luck!

About the Author: Rita Fisher