The problem is that the pools which recruiters tend to connect with are almost completely disjoint from the academic pools. The recruiting is almost completely

The problem is that the pools which recruiters tend to connect with are almost completely disjoint from the academic pools. The recruiting is almost completely driven by word of mouth. The other problem is outside of CS (and to some extent Wall Street) hiring companies often think they can get fresh PhDs for cheap. I've been offered salaries that were a x% bump on my pathetic postdoc pay. I have a PhD and would have loved to jump into industry but could only make it happen once I started networking within industry folks. Once I had an industry position I was suddenly swamped with recruiters asking if I was looking for a change.