What are some techniques for Gaining an Interview?

With a great deal of highly qualified IT professionals (like myself) who are in the market looking for a solid position with a company during these dark times, it would be great to gain a competitive edge. So with that being stated does anyone have any “pointers” for getting in the door for that all important first interview?

I have hired a couple of paid services for help me obtain interviews. Now these services have indicated that they will “Guarantee” that I will get past HR, anyone who would be threatened by my credentials and straight to the hiring director. Well, it turns out these these are basically resume blast type opportunities. I have had three rejections via this type of service and each one has been rejected by the company’s HR department. So I’m not sure if I paid for a resume blast to every HR department and it is a numbers game to get to the hiring director OR did they actually go to the hiring director and were rejected… who knows.

I have gotten some better action from using services such as “LinkedIn”. I have been growing my network and I have received three great leads from there… the problem is this is not a very good hiring season (end of the year, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, etc) so even the positions that are stating “We must fill this position before the end of the year” are dragging their feet… I know I’m up for three of them.

So outside of my babbling… are there any other ideas we, the unemployed masses, can take to heart to get in the door so we can present ourselves better than a couple of pieces of paper (yes the all mightly resume)?

Any ideas are welcome.