I wanted to say something else. Recruiters aren't necessarily good or bad. They are just a natural phenomenon of the technical landscape. Like I said earlier

I wanted to say something else. Recruiters aren't necessarily good or bad. They are just a natural phenomenon of the technical landscape. Like I said earlier, a HR person at a big company normally deals with the HR things. They aren't pouring over technical resumes. The technical recruiter, their sole purpose is to match candidates with job openings. So they have the time and resources to match candidates. This is bad for the lone job seeker that is just trying to find a job and he sees an opening out there. On the recruiters themselves, you want to look for big company technical recruiters of high-rated firms. E.g. ignore all the random emails from sys-inc-ez-find.com. You can search for the four or five top recruiter firms in your area. You don't have to talk to the 20-something recruiter. Normally, there is an account manager or manager that may even have a technical background. He/she is the person that typically seals the deal and knows his stuff.