[leohutson]

The recruiter is not usually empowered to filter a qualified candidate because they "only" worked at Amazon though, especially not if they made a good impression at Amazon and come with a referral.

I don't think anyone with a final say cares what the recruiter says beyond here's a list of CVs, they usually aren't qualified to go much deeper, but if they are, they aren't ranking companies based on what juniors on programming forums think are trendy.

[sokoloff]

It's not just active filtering of inbound resumes. Recruiters target their outbound searches by technology, keywords, companies, and universities. (Source: I am a hiring manager and I work closely with the recruiters who sit a few desks away.)