[tomjen2]

Recruiters are spammers (or more accurately marketeers, but that is the same thing), treat them as such.

If you need Viagra you go to Pfizer; if you need a job you go to the companies that you wan't to work with, no through some middle men.

[_b8r0]

A lot depends on where you sit in the industry you work in, what the industry is like (for example some large firms will have 2 or 3 recruiters and won't take direct applications) and how many players.

In our industry (Information Security) some recruiters are useful and do provide a service for both sides, but there are a lot that are like the ones this guy had to deal with. Thankfully our end of the industry is quite small and the shoddy ones tend to have a reputation that preceeds them.