Five Truths about finding a permanent position (not a contract) through a 3rd party (aka a placement agency):

1. Companies use agencies to connect to people that have been doing the last 2+ years whatever it is they want that person to do. Agencies can't help if you are entry-level or want to make a "career change" where your last 2 years experience is different, i.e. going from a programmer to a DBA.

2. Companies are more demanding about job history when hiring through an agency. They insist on 2-3+ years per job overall in the resume. 1 or 2 short stints are "OK" (depending on number of years into your career), but overall the jobs need to be 2-3+ years each.

3. Companies won't hire people for permanent positions who have been primarily doing contract or consulting (even if the person WANTS to change from contract to perm...it doesn't matter!). This is true except when the client happens to be a consulting or IT services company themselves.

4. Companies won't use agencies to hire those on H-1's or otherwise needing sponsorship (except if qualified for a TN visa). The agency doesn't decide this...client companies decide whether or not to sponsor.

5. Most companies in today's job market won't talk to a candidate if they are not local (even within the same state!), unless the skillset desired is extremely hard to find.

This means that you should put the most emphasis and the most information about your last 2 years experience, then fairly detailed information about years 2-5, and then only summary information anything over 5 years (dates, names of employers, titles, and 1-3 sentences about what you did). 

2. Technical skills sell, even at the Director level! Programmers should always tell how many months/years of each language you have experience in and then show those months/years in the description of your positions. 

If you are managing, you should always tell what the technical environment is/was that you are managing, as far as hardware, languages, operating systems. Even though you might not have coded yourself, the environment you are managing is very important to a potential employer. 

3. The maximum number of pages for a resume should be 3, even if you have 55 gazillion years of experience. Focusing on the last 2 years the most, years 3-5 somewhat less, and then least on years 5+ will allow you to get your resume down to 3 pages or less. Nothing wrong with 3 pages, but 4 is tedious and unnecessary.

The best course of action if you are entry-level is to prepare a resume with a cover letter and email/fax/mail it to every company you can uncover asking for an entry-level position (harsh, but true). Then source newspapers, friends, professors, etc. to come up with companies that might be hiring (even if they aren't) and send your cover letter and resume into them. Call the main number and ask for the address to submit resumes.