My impression is that those on the bottom of the recruiter rung do the really desperate stuff like hounding you with several weeks of emails every few days, cal

My impression is that those on the bottom of the recruiter rung do the really desperate stuff like hounding you with several weeks of emails every few days, calling you at your office, etc. If you're so unlucky to be a dead ringer for a position and have a rookie recruiter thinking they can wrangle you in, hold on to your seats. I'd highly recommend folks read "Gurus, Hired Guns, and Warm Bodies: Itinerant Experts in a Knowledge Economy", great perspectives given from all three parties involved in this land of recruitment. Also covers some history that may no longer be well known why the state of affairs is as such.