I take the recruiter's call just to get market information. Who is hiring? What are they paying? What's the market for someone like me? Or someone I may wan

I take the recruiter's call just to get market information. Who is hiring? What are they paying? What's the market for someone like me? Or someone I may want to hire? Who is doing interesting work? For better or worse, the "Mass hire smart people" is the most efficient way for these large companies to recruit. It's very good for ensuring universal standards of quality. But it suboptimal for specialists like the OP.