Hi Sans Nom
My experience is that there are good and bad employment agencies. The bad ones weren't hard to identify: they spend hours getting you registered and then people call you about improbable jobs without having even read your resume. The good ones only take on applicants who they can place: that means you send in your CV and you call them first thing next morning, ask politely for the person who deals with the type of job you are looking for, sound enthusiastic, give them a 3 liner about what you want and what you are good at. You don't waste their time and they don't waste yours.

Get a 3 liner ready before you call them. Good agencies don't waste time messing with people. Calling someone after you send in your CV gets your CV to the top of the pile on their desk, sounding enthusiastic and informed makes them want to meet you. "Informed" means looking online and seeing what jobs that agency specialise in, noting down names people dealing, asking practical questions about money, location, hours and whether they think you would be suitable.

All that is just my experience at that moment in time... I can't say that I won any jackpots but through working a lot of hours I earned enough to buy a house.

In your post, you talk about "I need" but not about what you an offer. Think about yourself: are you meticulous and accurate for example? Have you solved practical problems or fixed things? Are you patient? You don't have to be any of that, it's just about identifying what you can offer another person commercially - at a push.

It's ok to know what you need, but jobs are about selling what you can offer. If you were going to pay someone to do work for you, that's what you would be asking them so try seeing it from that point of view.

You might be surprised at what you are good at. There are some things that I'm good at that were given to me, some qualities that colleagues observed that I didn't know that I had, and some things that I've patiently learned so as to have something to offer in a certain field. Not expensive intellectual things: there is always a market for people to do practical stuff, and that's a good test of motivation.

When you call agencies, talk/ listen/ note the name of anyone who seems helpful, send then a brief thank you!!! Work can be abrasive, so please be gentle and encouraging towards yourself in this process!

Perhaps Emily can offer a different perspective on all of the above .