[ylee]

>Almost every place I’ve worked (early at startups later at megacorps) there were never enough recruiting resources. So eventually I just got my own recruiter account on LinkedIn and started using my knowledge of the industry and state of hiring to make my own search queries and reached out directly.

I've never worked for a tech company. But I have worked for two bulge-bracket investment banks.

In the first case I'm pretty sure the person looking to fill the role personally contacted my college's recruiting service (because she had received her MBA from there). In the second case I saw a Craigslist listing either by the person himself or his assistant, talked to someone I knew at the firm who worked near him, then reached out to the person directly. In both cases the person hiring did my first (and, in the second case, the only) interview, and I never talked to a true HR person, let alone recruiter, before receiving the offer. Does this sort of hiring never happen in tech?

[JohnFen]

Yes, it happens in tech. It's not even all that rare, really (at least outside of the FAANG crowd). I've reached a place in my career where I'm well-established and known enough that I don't really need to hustle to find good dev jobs anymore, but for most of my career, I got most of my jobs by being my own recruiter in that way.