[pixeloution]

Why not use a recruiter? That's a great question. Lets take a fictional recruiter named Joe.

To begin with, Joe isn't working for you; you're Joe's product. That answer would be enough to turn me away.

Where are Joe's Interests aligned? With yours? No, Joe wants to place you in a job, at any salary. Joe's company gets 30% of your first year's income from the employer, and Joe himself gets a much smaller slice. Joe's slice of $120k is similar enough to his slice of 130k that he beneifts most from placing you at any salary he can get you to accept, and then moving on to the next position.

Ah. So Joe's interests must be aligned with the hiring company, right? Only to the extent that Joe needs them to hire you (or someone like you) and he needs you to last at least X months so he doesn't get a claw back. His interests are more closely aligned with the company than yours, but ultimately its about filling seats for Joe. He wants to convince the company that each candidate is THE candidate.

Does this sound like a guy you want to help you find employment?

And finally, in the form of purely anecdotal personal experience, I've had recruiters flat out lie about aspects of the position. At the time I was too naive to verify facts with the employer.

[whichdan]

On the flip side, if the recruiter is a personal recommendation from someone you trust, and you don't feel comfortable negotiating salary or writing cover letters, they can be a quick way to get the ball rolling with several different companies. It's not like you can't research the companies that the recruiter is working with before applying.

That said, pixeloution's advice is spot on and applies to 90% of the recruiters you'll find via Google/LinkedIn/etc.

[Bahamut]

I have only had good experience with a few recruiters - the first one I worked with to get my first job, and one who only sent quality resumes to my company after working with them for years.

I have noticed a pattern from the hiring side though - recruiters often first send a lot of crappy resumes. It takes giving a serious talk about the quality of resumes being sent our way before they start sending more serious resumes. It dawned on me that a recruiter's role is to play matchmaker, not necessarily to send the best resumes to your company. This means that only the companies that complain & threaten to cut off the relationship are the ones that see the best resumes.