I am a technical recruiter with almost two decades of experience. I have literally placed thousands of IT professionals. People with bad experiences with recr

I am a technical recruiter with almost two decades of experience. I have literally placed thousands of IT professionals. People with bad experiences with recruiters are usually the bottom 80% of candidates - those we cannot help (employers only pay us for the top 10%, MAYBE the top 20%). Of course, no one thinks they are in the bottom 80%... Like every industry, 80% of the recruiters are lousy, and give the rest of us a bad name, so there is great truth in what is written here. HOWEVER, ask yourself, why is this happening to me? Why are agencies in business if we offer no value? The basic laws of capitalism would have forced us out of business if we did not create value. So if recruiters won't work with you, why is that? Remember, as a candidate, YOU are getting our work FOR FREE. You invest nothing but your time, and perhaps, some of your knowledge. We are taking a risk on you, risking our ability to earn a living, risking our relationships with our clients in the desparate hope you are not a lousy candidate, all by exposing you to the network of professionals we have invested large quantities of time and money in developing, so yeah, we expect you to give something back in the form of leads or references. What is wrong with that? Perhaps you would prefer to pay for our service? Believe me, we are expensive. Finding a good recruiter is easy - trust your gut, and find one who has been doing it for at least a year. The lousy ones are generally weeded out by then. Only trust those you are referred to, or are willing to meet you in person, and only those recruiters that partner with you. Also, help the recruiter help you. If you are confrontational, unprofessional, or otherwise difficult to work with, no good recruiter will invest any effort in you. Why would we take the risk?