As a person who works in HR... I can tell you that there's simply too many people. We cannot *possibly* call or write every person who gives us a resume, even for the jobs we advertise for. It's hard enough getting the "no thanks" letters out to those we actually interview!
It's the small things, really. A nice looking resume, no shoddy copies, and for gods' sakes, SPELL CHECK! If you're going into anything other than housekeeping, there's no excuse for typos and that will immediately make most recruiters say "nah". Unless you have some particular quality that no one else has - a certification, a licensure need for the job, etc. FORMATTING - yes, it counts! Don't use thirty different fonts and sizes... clean is more professional. If your cell is better to contact you, fucking list it! What good is your home number if I can't reach you there?
Depending on your field, you can do the resume one of two ways, basically: One, list the past jobs with a brief summary of responsibilities/skills used and two, list the major skill/accomplishments separately from a basic list of actual jobs etc. held. If any were through temp agencies, SAY SO so we don't think you're a job hopper.
As far as education goes, it depends on your field. If I'm going to apply to be a secretary, the BA I got in English helps (we don't care what year, that only gives us more fodder to see how long you might have been out of a job). A degree in GENERAL helps. But if I'm going to be an Xray Tech, then it's more about my certs and all that. Make sense?
Hope that helps...