[beamso]

I'm currently unemployed.

I would say that some recruiters are great, just like some internal recruiters are poor. The worst experience I've had this round of interviewing has been with an internal recruiter, where there was both no personality fit between me and the managers/recruiters and the job was not what they had advertised.

I alerted my network that I was looking for work before I resigned. I didn't get an attractive offer through my network so I have to look through ads on various job boards.

By replying to those ads with applications I eventually got interviews or recruiters calling me back about positions that they had not advertised yet.

You are correct in that your friends won't recommend you to a place where they aren't enjoying working or where they don't think you'll enjoy working.