[onion2k]

Just stop accepting recruiters are a necessary part of the process. They aren't. Especially the spammy ones.

Recruiters typically charge 20% of your salary to a company that recruits you. If you apply directly to the company and they hire you, they save a lot of money. That gives you a significant advantage over people who rely on recruiters to find them roles. If you're looking for a new job, make a short list of places you'd like to work at and cold email them. You might be surprised just how receptive they are. (This won't work if you're looking at FAANGs though.)

[decafninja]

I've been working 10+ years in the industry, currently at my fifth company. I've sent out countless resumes, interviewed at countless places. Tiny mom and pop shops, small tech startups, boring cludgy enterprises, all the way up to FAANG.

I have not even once gotten anything more than an automated rejection email from all the companies I've applied to online cold.

The only times I've ever gotten to even speak with a human (leading up to phone screen, interview, etc.) was when a recruiter reached out to me first, whether internal or third party.

Even reaching out to recruiters first on LinkedIn always ends up being ignored.

Yes, I've tweaked and tuned my resume countless times, including having it reviewed by reputable people in the industry.

As far as I'm concerned, applying cold is a straight ticket for my resume into a black hole.

[eatonphil]

An opposite data point: I've hired people directly and through recruiters and I never felt one way or the other based on the recruiter overhead cost or not.

A good candidate is a good candidate and they're hard to find no matter the source.