My Key Recruiter Indicators, based on my experiences in the US: Good: Working with a founder of a company that's more than a few years old. Bad: Talking to so

My Key Recruiter Indicators, based on my experiences in the US: Good: Working with a founder of a company that's more than a few years old. Bad: Talking to someone different each time a company contacts you. Toxic: Talking to someone new each time, and them making you go through the same "getting to know you" interview questions each time. Good: The recruiter sends you job opportunities that match what you've told them to look for, and what they send you gets progressively better with more feedback. Bad: Repeatedly send you jobs that don't match your skills or interests. Toxic: Send you jobs that don't even match your location requirements. Good: Gives you "behind the scenes" details about postings - what skills are really required and what they're willing to train, what the work environment is like, etc. Bad: Only knows what's on the job listing, and, if you match the requirements, will tell you whatever you need to hear to get you to agree to the interview. Toxic: Won't even tell you the name of the company they're submitting you to. Good: Talking openly with you about their "cut", or at least open to ideas for increasing your take-home pay. (US contracting example: how much will they increase your rate if you switch from W-2 to 1099?) Bad: Asking you for your rate/salary range to begin with, and using your bottom-of-range number as the starting point to negotiate you down from. Toxic: Negotiating you down on your rate repeatedly, practically at every step of the recruiting process. What really sucks about working with recruiters is, an average-to-bad recruiter can still get you a good job. Since it's a numbers game for everyone involved, there's at least some incentive to put up with assholes, as long as there's a chance that they will find you something good.