[jnordwick]

Companies in certain industries often don't publicly list because they don't want it widely known what they are looking for, what they are doing, or even that they exist sometimes. Or they don't want to weed through all the crap resumes and recruiters are their front line against that. That's not solvable with just a better platform.

And no algorithm, stats, and analysis is going to be a good as a recruiter who works regularly with a firm and knows what they are looking for, what the culture is like, and their internals.

Also recruiters help negotiate salary for you too, and that always helps.

They also take you out to lunch too :)

[michaelt]

  Also recruiters help negotiate salary for you too,
  and that always helps.

The recruiter's paid by the employer, and wants to maintain a good relationship with them. Surely their incentive is to place two candidates at $0.9x for a total of $1.8x, rather than placing a single candidate at $1.1x by driving a hard bargain?

I guess I'm confused as to why anyone would expect a better result by having someone else do your negotiation?

[jnordwick]

That's an interesting point but realistically I've never had that happen (that i know of at least). I've a always had them come back with better numbers than the initial offer.

[mianos]

Not down here in Australia. They get so much commission their interest is mainly in making a placement and will actively negotiate downwards if they think there is some risk in making the placement at a higher salary.