Having been in the same job for eighteen years now, I suppose I shouldn't comment much on current ways of doing things, but I have seen my two eldest kids running on the treadmill of job agencies and employment searching.
I always found that the secret is that you don't rely on the job agencies like Centerlink, Sarina Russo, whatever, to find you a job...you have to go and look yourself.
I know that at work, the agency we deal with will advertise a job vacancy at our factory, then they will get the applications, and they will send to us a "final list" of people that they believe are "suitable".
Now, there may be brilliant, talented people just sitting there who may be a great assett to the company...but if some beurocrat at a job agency doesn't like thier application for whatever reason, they won't ever get a chance.
My son and daughter both used the following method: write a complete and accurate resume listi ng your personal strengths and and job you may have had or skills relating to whatever job you are going for...they also listed hobbies, interests, and other skills which may be outside the actual job they are applying for...employers like a flexible person.
They then found a place (or several places) they thought they would like to work, and simply marched in to the office with thier resume and asked to speak to someone in management or the HR department. After a couple of times doing this they got through to someone in charge and ended up with the job.
I should also point out that both these places they work have signs at the front counter saying "we deal through XYZ job agency only and will advertise vacancies through them", but employers like someone with a bit of intitiative and drive who is willing to push to get a job and who show they are a bit enthusiastic about it instead of just phoning or mailing in an application.
Eevn back in the bad old days of the CES, I never found or was offered a job through them, I found any job I ever had myself by footslogging around with resumes.
The basic point is this: if you personally walk into a business with a resume, you are dealing directly with the company, whether you get knocked back or not, at least you have come face to face with them. If you go through a job agency, you deal with the person who opens the resumes, the person who reviews them all, the person who matches them to whatever job is going, and then finally mails what they think is best to a business. You are simply doing away with several levels of middle men.
That list of wisdom which went around the internet a while ago supposedly from Bill Gates (it wasn't, it's been around for years and is an urban legend) is very true. You know, the one wit things like "you won't start out with your own office, company car, and phone", and "you won't start out making $25 an hour, you have to start at the bottom sweeping floors and work your way up", that kind of thing.
And also Sashyre is dead right...Too many people (including one certain deadbeat brother-in-law of mine...) have a specific type of work in mind, and will simply turn thier noses up at anything else, no matter how good a job it is...they have a list of certain things they want...level of pay, conditions, perks, etc. One of his brothers (another of my wifes brothers) works in the construction industry, and offered him six months temporary work on a big project near town...he would have been a simple laborer helping clean up and be a gofur, but it was a solid six months work and the pay was at casual rates, and was something like $25 a frickin' hour, for christs sake! My deadbeat bro-in-law turned his nose up and said "I'm not standing out in the sun chucking bricks around and sweeping up rubbish".
(watching too much of the Matrix)