Every experience I've had with a recruiter has left a bad taste in my mouth. The first didn't know the difference between Java and JavaScript, and when they wa

Every experience I've had with a recruiter has left a bad taste in my mouth. The first didn't know the difference between Java and JavaScript, and when they wanted me to fill out an online skill quiz, she fumbled and gave me the wrong one (I only figured it out part-way through due to the first obviously language specific question, where I immediately realized I answered some previous questions wrong) and then wouldn't push for the salary I requested. Doesn't know anything and won't help me? Relationship over. The second was an informative middleman between me and an obviously on-the-fence employer, but called me a ridiculous amount of times to relay every tid-bit of conversation he had with them and prodded me for friend referrals every time we spoke, which got old fast. Odds are good that if I didn't give up any names the first 3 times you asked, I'm not going to give any names the 9th and 10th and 20th time either without any knowledge of the recruiter's successes, I'm not wasting my friend's time with him. It resulted in nothing, wasted a ton of my time and was very annoying. The third was totally useless and was trying to tell me about similar-salary lateral movement opportunities that required moving or a stupidly long commute, negating any possible benefit. Waste of my time. The fourth was a cold-calling corporate HR recruiter from the company I was currently employed with, offering me my previous postion I had just moved up from. My boss and I had a good laugh, and I was tempted to apply/move forward with her to see what would happen. There might be a handful a good recruiters out there, but the odds are so low, I don't see a compelling reason to waste my time on the off-chance they're useful, friends and networking are infinitely better. They also seem to be very adverse to sending email that contains anything meaningful, always preferring the phone.