In my experience, they were absolutely awful. In the old days, they were awesome. More like talent agents, than matchmakers. They were usually older folks that

In my experience, they were absolutely awful. In the old days, they were awesome. More like talent agents, than matchmakers. They were usually older folks that advocated for you, maintained extensive Rolodexes (shows how long ago that was), which they exercised on your behalf (basically, they "networked" for you), and made pretty significant commissions. I believe that top-tier executive recruiters still work like this. These days, they seem to be very young, and, I suspect, make a great deal less money.