[wonderwonder]

I respectfully disagree. Just update your resume on Dice, Monster etc. and you will have recruiters calling 2 - 3 times a day. Now you may not get the specific job in the specific industry you are partial too but you can definitely get a good job. I have no where close to SF experience or probably their top of the mountain skill-sets but I have no problem getting job interviews if I want them. My network pretty much consists of me and whatever nameless recruiters call me.

The last time I wanted a new job I just updated my resume on Monster and had 3 interviews a week later and started a great new job two weeks after that.

Sorry you had a negative experience from your move, hope things turn around for you.

[astura]

I hate recruiter spam, recruiters who call me are useless because they want me to relocate. It's actually kinda insulting because I want to say to them "sure, I'll just uproot my entire life, sell my house, have my husband quit his job, and leave my entire social circle to move to [city] just to work at your shitty startup." I can understand calling JR engineers for positions that require relocation, but not currently employed senior engineers. Of course I don't say that because it's impolite. They seem to operate on "mindlessly spam everyone with the same message, someone might reply."

There's been one exception to this. A single exception. Of all the recruiters who have contracted me one has been local.

EDIT: To the dead commentator that replied to me:

1) I didn't say people don't want to hire me, I politely decline all recruiter spam with "sorry, I can't relocate." It's just the more I get the more I silently get enraged. I find local jobs and get hired locally just fine without recruiters.

2) Being a senior engineer with as many years experience that I have usually means you are old enough to have put down roots where you are. Very few people make long distance moves for a random job when they are older than 35, unless they are unemployed or changing careers or something like that.

3) No need to use scare quotes around senior.

[wonderwonder]

This can be true, it does appear that most recruiters appear to take a shotgun approach. They also just search for keywords and have generally not even read your complete resume. Occasionally they also don't look at cities, only states and have no idea the distance between where you are and where the job is.

Recruiter: Your resume says you have .net experience, we are looking for a Sr. .Net developer, interested?

Me: My resume says I developed some tools in .Net and that the bulk of my background is in php.

Recruiter: Great, would you like to apply?

Simplified but generally accurate. Either way I have had pretty good luck getting jobs via recruiters but there is a lot of chaff you have to get through. Your mileage may vary but I have been happy so far.

[Izkata]

I don't even bother going as far as you, I have a rock bottom set of criteria they must pass before I'll do anything but mark it as spam:

1) Send it to the correct email address. Not my personal one, use what's on my resume.

2) Give some indication you've read my resume, such as mentioning a technology listed on it. Not something I've never included.

3) Something about the job. Anything at all, even just what city it's in.

That I can recall, only once has a recruiter passed. Kinda felt bad at turning down what seemed like the only recruiter who was competent at their job.

[funfunfun]

Thanks. Its not a shortage of recruiters or available positions:)