[prpon]

You hit the nail on the head. In a bad economy/tech market like 2001, the recruiters were rude, unreachable and acted like Gods. After 9/11 2001, a recruiter sent me resume of few other candidates vying for the same job and asked me to write a page describing how I am better than those candidates.

Now, the tables have turned, we developers consider recruiters as dirt bags. I have no doubt that the tide will turn again. We just don't know when.

[spenrose]

"Next time it could be you" is not the only or even best motivation for practicing compassion and tolerance. I have been cold called by inept recruiters and hired by companies with barely competent ones. Nurturing contempt for them does nothing good, in particular it does nothing good for you. It's also a missed opportunity: when a niche in the economy attracts ineptitude, that tells you there's a broken system possibly worth analyzing.

[dabent]

I encountered recruiters who were a bit short with me in that era, but I encountered more who had a who had a different sort of desperation than they do now. Third-party recruiters rely on a steady stream of jobs coming available so they can collect placement fees. In 2002, they faced a real pinch in what jobs were open and in what companies would pay to both developers and recruiters. Many recruiters went without work as they didn't have any jobs to place people in.

I talked with one recruiter about a job that paid about 1/3rd what I made just 2 years before. I said "has it really gotten that bad?" He opened up about the situation as he really didn't expect me to go after the job as it paid far less than what I was making, even back then. IIRC, it was the only job he had open at the time and rates had hit bottom, so he couldn't even find anyone willing to take it. Fortunately, things turned around for both of us.