[acheron]

Obviously you're biased, but you're making it sound like working with an external recruiter is actually a good idea. Mostly I just hear that IT recruiters are terrible -- don't actually know what your skills are and just blast out your resume as much as possible, falsifying information if needed, and so on. So I've never pursued it, and ignored the occasional overtures. However after some disappointments I'm wondering if I've been too hasty there.

I know a bunch of HN posters stay in start-up land, where things are likely different, but I'm wondering if those who aren't have any other recruiter experience? My wife did have good luck with a recruiter in the law world, though the market there is quite different from the tech market.

[spacemanaki]

I'm starting a new job in less than a week that I got through a recruiter. I was cold LinkedIn-ed and was initially skeptical because I've had bad experiences in the past. But this time was different and I'm really glad that I followed through.

My recruiter was helpful and remained at all times respectful of my time and my goals. She never pushed me to interview with companies I wasn't interested with, and she gave me some really valuable advice about how to sell myself as a less experienced and junior programmer. And regarding compensation, she was able to help me negotiate for a lot more than I thought I was going to be able to ask for.

I'm obviously not that experienced, but I think there definitely are some good recruiters out there who can be really helpful in certain situations. In my case the relationship happened to be extremely beneficial, partly because of my inexperience but also because it was just good timing.